Highbrow Magazine - nasa https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/nasa en ‘Shoot for the Moon’ Charts Space Race from Sputnik to Apollo 11 https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10096-shoot-moon-charts-space-race-sputnik-apollo <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 08/15/2019 - 09:32</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1donovanbook_0.jpg?itok=uhZF9F7g"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1donovanbook_0.jpg?itok=uhZF9F7g" width="310" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11</strong></p> <p><strong>By James Donovan</strong></p> <p><strong>Little, Brown</strong></p> <p><strong>464 pages</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Seen from 50 years later, it’s difficult—even for those who witnessed the event on grainy black-and-white TV—to fully credit the technological wonder of one man’s first steps on the moon. Since July 20, 1969, adventures in space have become either too predictable and bland (in the eyes of some) or insufficiently daring—except for quixotic hopes of a manned flight to Mars in the 2030s.</p> <p> </p> <p>James Donovan’s <em>Shoot for the Moon,</em> along with a plethora of other moon-landing-related books during this anniversary year, carries readers back to that more or less distant era. In brisk, workmanlike prose, Donovan details the space race from the USSR’s electrifying launch of the Sputnik satellite and the early days of the Mercury and Gemini space programs, culminating with Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind.</p> <p> </p> <p>Some of the most affecting passages center around the sheer unknowability of what might happen to a human being thrust into space and transported hundreds of thousands of miles to the moon:</p> <p> </p> <p>“A fragile human in the vacuum of space would die almost instantly …  Even if his lungs didn’t rupture, the deoxygenation of the blood would result in a loss of consciousness in fifteen seconds or less. As the water in his body vaporized and his oxygen disappeared, the moisture on his tongue, in his eyes, and elsewhere would begin to boil and bubble; his skin and the tissue beneath it would start to swell and turn bluish purple; and the gases in—and possibly the contents of—his stomach, bowels, sinuses, and other body cavities would release rapidly.”</p> <p> </p> <p>What comes across in <em>Shoot for the Moon</em> is the unadorned heroism of ex-test pilots and other scientific whizkids who understood these dangers and still persisted in becoming astronauts. In fact, there was intense competition among the fledgling spacemen, each vying to be the first to set foot on the lunar surface.</p> <p> </p> <p>Training was equally intense, since there was no telling precisely what would happen when astronauts were subjected to conditions of space travel. That’s why training could include “blinding the subject, sticking a hose in an ear, and pumping cold water into his ear canal until he was dizzy, or submerging a man’s feet in a bucket of ice-filled water until they went numb or he couldn’t take it anymore.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1moonlanding.jpg" style="height:318px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In attempting to anticipate all conceivable hazards, the astronauts-in-training underwent what could easily pass as “torture” in another setting.</p> <p> </p> <p>Donovan excels at taking readers through the mind-boggling logistics of preparing for Apollo 11’s flight, as well as the internecine struggle to be chosen for the once-in-a-lifetime honor of the first lunar landing. His account is extensively researched and draws upon firsthand interviews with many of the key players of the time.</p> <p> </p> <p>And when Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins make the final approach to the moon, and two of the three men on board descend to the moon’s surface in the Lunar Module, “Eagle,” the whole world is watching:</p> <p> </p> <p>“In New York’s Central Park, ten thousand watched on giant screens; bars and restaurants throughout the United States and in much of the free world showed the broadcast. In Warsaw, several hundred Poles crammed into the lobby of the U.S. embassy to see it. Even the pope, in his summer villa, sat mesmerized in front of the TV. Despite the turmoil of the time, for one day, the billions of inhabitants of Earth shared the same sense of yearning and wonder as a human walked on the satellite above them, so far away.”</p> <p> </p> <p>For readers unfamiliar with this historic event, or who want to fill out their knowledge of the space race of the 1950s and 1960s, <em>Shoot for the Moon </em>is an excellent place to start.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Lee Polevoi, author of </em></strong><strong>The Moon in Deep Winter<em>, is </em>Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief book critic.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><em><a href="https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1910591/aiming-higher-airmen-contribute-to-human-spaceflight-from-apollo-to-tomorrow/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(223, 34, 39);">NASA</a></em></p> <p><em>Little, Brown</em></p> <p><em>Cover Photo: <a href="https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/a29bdb75-4926-45d4-a537-047cf4348673">"Apollo 11,"</a> U.S. State Department (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/james-donovan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">james donovan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/shoot-moon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">shoot for the moon</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/space-race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">space race</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/neil-armstrong" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">neil armstrong</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/apollo-11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">apollo 11</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sputnik" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sputnik</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jfk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jfk</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nasa" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nasa</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lee Polevoi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 15 Aug 2019 13:32:58 +0000 tara 8903 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10096-shoot-moon-charts-space-race-sputnik-apollo#comments Letters From the Earth: The Ongoing Battle to Conquer Outerspace https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2168-letters-earth-ongoing-battle-conquer-outerspace <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 09:31</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumouterspace%20%28Rrinsindika%20Wiki%29.jpg?itok=Wi9nmCns"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumouterspace%20%28Rrinsindika%20Wiki%29.jpg?itok=Wi9nmCns" width="480" height="384" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/02/threat-from-space-is-real-but-man-stands-better-chance-than-the-dinosaurs.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> A meteor estimated to be 10 tons by NASA exploded Friday morning over Russia's Ural region and its shockwave caused injuries to more than 1,200 people. It took out windows and walls in the city of Chelyabinsk. And it temporarily shifted the conversation here on Earth to talks of the heavens.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "We can find these objects, we can track their motions, and we can predict their orbits many years into the future," noted Robert Naeye of Sky and Telescope in an essay called, “Lessons from the Russian Meteor Blast.” "And in the unlikely event that we actually find a dangerous object on a collision course with Earth, we might actually be able to deflect it if given sufficient warning time. Now, every government in the world is keenly aware of the possibility of meteor explosions over its territory."</p> <p>  </p> <p> The Russian parliament is also keen on the idea. "Instead of fighting on Earth, people should be creating a joint system of asteroid defense," its affairs committee chief Alexei Pushkov wrote on his Twitter account late Friday. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on Saturday proposed a global defense system to counter space threats.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And on CNN, Lawrence Krauss, professor of physics and director of the origin project, talked about how human technology has advanced to the point of predicting and, more interesting, deflecting oncoming meteorites that could cause the earth "significant damage."</p> <p>  </p> <p> "We have to think about it seriously," he said. "It's not science fiction. We can send a rocket out and land on [a meteor] or impact with it." If the meteor is far enough, "a small rocket running for a while [can cause] a small angular change... enough to have it miss the earth."</p> <p>  </p> <p> So welcome to the age of “empyrealization” -- an age of man's increasing awareness and interactions with the heavens. We grow cognizant that we exist on intimate levels with the rest of the universe, that we are interacting with it, and, increasingly, having an effect upon it as it does on us. The word – empyrealization -- doesn't exist yet in the dictionary, but for that matter neither did globalization, three decades ago.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Unlike the dinosaurs, we have, in effect, become active agents in changing our destiny. A giant meteor wiped out much of life on earth 65 million years ago because the dinosaurs didn't collectively create a missile shield to deflect the meteor. Humans, on the other hand, with our orbiting telescopes and space probes, and our growing awareness of the threat from space, can track large foreign objects coming from millions of miles away, and are talking about collectively deflecting those that could do us harm.</p> <p>  </p> <p> That man has changed his home planet is now well accepted. Long before the industrial revolution and the age of climate change, humans have significantly impacted earth, at least according to climate scientist William Ruddiman, in his book titled <em>Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate</em>. There is significant evidence, he noted, that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been rising since the earliest beginnings of agriculture. There is strong evidence, too, that a mini-ice age was averted some 5,000 years ago due to the rise in methane caused by the proliferation rice paddy agriculture in Asia.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Unlike our ancestors, however, increasingly we are aware that human actions have an impact on the entire planet and beyond.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumouterspace.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 335px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> The knowledge informed NASA's decision in September 2003 to crash the spacecraft Galileo on Jupiter rather than on Europa, one of Jupiter's 39 satellites. Europa has an ocean under its ice and active volcanoes to boot. It just might be supporting alien life. Jupiter, on the other hand, is very hot and gaseous and deemed incapable of life. Crashing Galileo on Europa would have risked contaminating it with microbes from earth.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In fact, we have been interacting with the heavens longer than most have thought. Think of it in term of radio waves. According to Adam Grossman: "Mankind has been broadcasting radio waves into deep space for about a hundred years now... That, of course, means there is an ever-expanding bubble announcing Humanity's presence to anyone listening in the Milky Way. This bubble is astronomically large (literally), and currently spans approximately 200 light years across."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Or think of it in terms of our orbiting trash. According to NASA, "More than 500,000 pieces of debris, or ‘space junk,’ are tracked as they orbit the Earth. They all travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft."</p> <p>  </p> <p> While some of the junk falls back to earth, other bits exit into outer space. In other words, the cosmos might rain meteors on earth, but humans too have already interacted with the universe by sending manmade debris into space.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But more significantly, our rovers have been on Mars, roaming and digging, and studying its soil. China is planning a potential colony on the moon. And we have plenty of space probes that travel about in our solar system. Voyager 1, the first probe ever sent out, has gone past our solar system into deep space.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And all the while we map the universe, searching for planets that may be hospitable to life. Astronomers, in fact, have discovered hundreds of other solar systems, and 864 exo-planets so far -- planets that are outside our solar system. One planet in particular, 150 million light years away, is believed to have an atmosphere.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Clearly, our destiny is in outer space. Globalization is but child's play compared to empyrealization, when man now recognizes Earth as existing in an open system with the rest of the cosmos and that he is interacting with, and increasingly, having an effect upon it.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But meanwhile there's the issue of falling meteorites. The one that exploded over Russia last Friday was undetected. There are several million asteroids that orbit the sun and less than 1 percent so far is tracked. If man's destiny is in space, man's home world needs to be protected for that destiny to be fulfilled.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The dinosaurs didn't' fare too well. We have a better chance. We've come by and large to accept that we changed the weather. Whether or not we can deflect a large meteor as in the Hollywood movie, Armageddon, remains to be seen. Brilliant minds are at work. And there’s nothing like an external threat to galvanize humanity.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Andrew Lam is an editor at New America Media. He is the author of "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora" (Heyday Books, 2005), which won a Pen American "Beyond the Margins" award, and "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres". His latest book, "Birds of Paradise Lost," a collection of short stories about Vietnamese immigrants struggling to rebuild their lives in the Bay Area after a painful exodus, was recently published by Red Hen Press. He has lectured and read his work widely at many universities.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/02/threat-from-space-is-real-but-man-stands-better-chance-than-the-dinosaurs.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/outerspace" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">outerspace</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/space" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">space</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/moon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the moon</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/orbit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">orbit</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/planets" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">planets</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/russian-meteor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">russian meteor</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/meteor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">meteor</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nasa" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nasa</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cosmos-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the cosmos</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/astronomy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">astronomy</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Lam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Rrinsinda (Wikipedia Commons)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:31:21 +0000 tara 2396 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2168-letters-earth-ongoing-battle-conquer-outerspace#comments From the Moon to Mars: JFK May Have Created a Monster https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1463-moon-mars-jfk-may-have-created-monster <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 08/12/2012 - 13:20</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummarsnasa%20%28wikipedia%29.jpg?itok=O6Sofu1d"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummarsnasa%20%28wikipedia%29.jpg?itok=O6Sofu1d" width="480" height="358" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/curiosity-for-life-on-mars-our-place-is-in-space.php">New America Media</a>: </p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>--The </em><em>United States</em><em> was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward, and so will space.</em> - <strong>John F. Kennedy, 1962</strong></p> <p> <em>--We choose to go to the </em><em>moon...</em><strong>John</strong><strong> F. Kennedy, 1962</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> Mars has become a very busy place, being orbited by satellites and crisscrossed by Land Rovers. As if that's not enough, Curiosity, a roving science laboratory, just successful landed at the planet's ancient crater to probe for signs that the planet was life-friendly in the past.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Indeed, we are mapping and processing our neighboring planet so extensively that it feels as if Mars has already been colonized. There is even a Google Mars website if you want to see the planet's surface in technicolor.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Man, despite our earthly crises, remains enthralled by the cosmos. NASA is planning manned missions to Mars in the 2030s -- with the cooperation of Japan and Europe -- and plans to establish a permanent station on the moon. China, too, hopes to have a manned station orbiting the moon, having sent a moon orbiter in 2010 to map it out and in 2013, it'll send a landing rover. All the while, our satellites, probes and telescopes are peering deep into the heavens looking for signs of extraterrestrial life.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Welcome to the post-global age. We are now entering an age where human interactions reach beyond the stratospheres of our world towards the cosmos.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Call it cosmozation, or better yet, empyrealization -- an age where man's reach for the heavens is realized. Neither words exist yet in the dictionary, but for that matter, neither did globalization three decades ago (so feel free to come up with a coinage that may be apropos to our post-global age.)</p> <p>  </p> <p> Roland Robertson, a social scientist, defines globalization as "the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole." The world shrinks, geographical constraints are overcome, while identities become multilayered, complex. As a species, we may not always get along with each other, but these days, thanks to an integrated economy and unprecedented mass movement across the various borders, and modern technology -- satellites, cell phones, jet planes, the Internet, and so on -- we are, like it or not, constantly aware of each other's existence.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Taking Robertson's definition a step further, it seems inevitable that the universe, too, shrinks and compresses as we explore and measure it, and as we infer profound implications from our discoveries. Cosmozation, or empyrealization, is then the process by which man's awareness and influence expand beyond our planet: We grow cognizant that we exist on intimate levels with the rest of the universe, that we are interacting with it, and, increasingly, having an effect upon it.</p> <p>  </p> <p> While thinkers and writers still haven't come to terms with the full impact of the forces of globalization, another age is already upon us -- one in which man's awareness expands beyond the globe as his relationship with the cosmos intensifies.</p> <p>  </p> <p> There's a radical shift taking place in regards to our relationship with the universe. Not so long ago, until Copernicus came along, we assumed our world was the universe's center -- and, for that matter, flat -- and that the sun orbited Earth. Most of last century we held on to the notion that our solar system was unique. And scientists just a generation ago assumed, too, that conditions on Earth -- a protective atmosphere, ample water and volcanic activity -- made it the only planet that could possibly support life.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Now we know that the conditions on our home planet may be unique, but solar systems are not at all anomalies. In fact, we are in the process of accepting that we are very much part of the larger universe. Furthermore, by sending space probes to the edge of the solar system, by collecting moon rocks and comet dust, by landing probes on Mars to dig for soils and search for signs of life, we are in constant exchange with the universe.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As astonishing discoveries are being made, that sense of self-importance has eroded, giving way to a more humble assessment of our place in the cosmos.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumkennedyspace%20%28TimeLifePictures%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 330px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Consider some of these recent discoveries.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *Using the Hubble telescopes and the Kepler observatory, which orbit Earth, and the Hale Telescope in California, astronomers have discovered hundreds of other solar systems, and nearly 800 exoplanets -- planets that are outside our solar systems. One planet in particular, 150 million light years away, is believed to have an atmosphere.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *We know that Earth is constantly bombarded by meteors when we look up into the night sky and spot shooting stars. But more astounding is astronomer Lou Frank's recent discovery. Using the Hubble Telescope to study Earth's atmosphere, Frank proved that Earth is constantly being hit by snowballs from space. The implications are enormous: If ice from outer space hits Earth regularly, it could be "raining" onto other planets too, providing much-needed water to support life. The universe is suddenly very wet.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *A few years ago a meteorite from Mars found on Earth, known as the Allan Hills meteorite (or ALH 84001 to scientists), astonished everyone when some scientists claimed they found tantalizing traces of fossilized life within it. Their findings have been contested, but the discovery fired up the imagination.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *Moreover, the Galileo space probe that orbited Jupiter showed us that on Europa, one on Jupiter's many moons, huge oceans lie beneath an icy surface. Scientists found active volcanoes as well -- that is to say, ingredients that could spark and possibly support life.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *More tantalizing still is the organic materials found in comet dust collected from the comet Wild 2. Here's NASA's press release on the comet dust brought back to Earth by the space probe Stardust: "These chunks of ice and dust wandering our solar system appear to be filled with organic molecules that are the building blocks of life."</p> <p>  </p> <p> The finding surprised scientists because many predicted that the space probe would find mostly ice. Instead, the finding could lend support to the belief that comets could have "seeded" life on our planet as well as others.</p> <p>  </p> <p> *Then, of course, there's the discovery of water on the moon. Scientists found this by deliberately crashing a rocket stage into the moon in 2009, and, in the floor of a permanently shadowed crater, found up to a billion gallons of water and ice near the moon's south pole.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And if there's water aplenty in the universe, then why not DNA? "Panspermia" (originating from the Greek word for "all-seeding"), the hypothesis that seeds of life could have been delivered to Earth -- and possibly other planets -- is now revised; this theory of an interstellar exchange of DNA was championed by Francis Crick, who discovered the DNA molecule with two other scientists more than half a century ago, was ridiculed last century. But if scientists laughed behind the Nobel laureate's back when he first suggested it, no one is laughing now.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Besides, there is such a thing as self-fulfilling prophecy: If Earth didn't receive DNA for a primordial startup way back when, we are now actively sending out our earthly DNA to space via the forms of various microbes that are riding along with our space crafts and satellites and shuttles that are scattered out into the universe.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As a result, ours is no longer just a lonely blue planet amidst the heavens. As we send probes and manned missions to the comos and map the universe, as we enthusiastically search for signs of life elsewhere and collect comet dust -- earth seems to exist increasingly as part of an open and intricately complex system.</p> <p>  </p> <p> War and strife and revolutions and bloodshed seem endless on our home world, but when man gazes up at the night sky, it remains alluring and sublime. To paraphrase the great mythologist, Joseph Campbell, that sea on which humanity now sails is infinitely more vast than that imagined by Columbus. And with a rover named Curiosity actively searching for signs of past life on Mars, there's no doubt that our place is in space, and the cosmic age has indeed arrived.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Andrew Lam is an editor with New America Media and the author of</em> Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora <em>and</em> East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: Wikipedia; Time-Life Pictures.</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/space-exploration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">space exploration</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cosmos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cosmos</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/curiosity" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">curiosity</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nasa" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nasa</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/moon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the moon</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jfk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jfk</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-kennedy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">president kennedy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hubble-telescoper" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hubble telescoper</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/planet-earth" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">planet Earth</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lilfe-mars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lilfe on mars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/planets" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">planets</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/allan-hills-meteorite" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">allan hills meteorite</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Lam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 12 Aug 2012 17:20:17 +0000 tara 1388 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1463-moon-mars-jfk-may-have-created-monster#comments