Curiosity takes one more step for Neil

What a terrific moment today when Curiosity Mars Explorer landed successfully. The people at NASA involved in this project must be very relieved and extremely proud. Lets hope the results from this achievement spur humanity on to greater efforts to explore the solar system. Maybe the example of CERN and the LHC will serve to show what can be achieved working together and that the international community will finally get together. I’d love to see humans stand on the surface of Mars.

While writing about great endeavour and achievement it is great to see all these Olympic athletes (winners and other competitors) giving their best efforts. As someone who has worked at my various sports for all my life I understand the effort and sacrifice. Having watched rowers finish a race, to see how much of themselves they have given and the disappointment and feeling that they had somehow let people down, this upset me when I then thought about the ignorant,arrogant waste of space students I often encounter at work.

Finally I was saddened to see that Neil Armstrong had died recently. He was one of my hero's and an inspiration. One of my first memory's was getting up early in the morning to watch that first moon landing on the TV. Just think that in the whole history of humanity only eleven people have stood on another planet and looked back at our small and insignificant dot that we call home. Neil Armstrong was the first human to ever stand on another planet (well moon actually), what courage must that have taken. Yet when he returned to Earth he remained the quiet, humble man he always was. Maybe we could do with more like him, maybe we could do with people asking why we have not moved further after all it was forty years ago when the last man Eugene Cernan stood on our moon (it's all politics and it's all garbage - mankind needs more than our small planet to survive and to do that we need to be together and the thing holding us down are politics, greed and relgion.)

Here are some quotes from Neil:

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.

I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.

I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

All of these quotes say something important: humanity can be great, certainly so much more than we are, when we allow ourselves to be. That we live on a small part of the Universe, nothing special and that we need to reach for more. That we have not allowed ourselves to move on from those days of Apollo.

Carl Sagan, the Cosmos and what's wrong with us.

Before I really get into this topic I must point out that I have discussed some of these topics before.

Over the last few weeks I have watched the wonderful “COSMOS’ series, something I remember seeing in 1980/1981. The series has brought to my mind several issues relating to the series, my own personal thoughts and to other issues from Carl Sagan from various sources. Here I've included a link to youtube showing part of the series, where Carl explains the 4th dimension

First up there’s the wonder of all the beauty of the cosmos, especially the pictures of the  night-sky. I don’t understand how people cannot be moved when they see images of the stars and galaxies, or why people are not intrigued to know what lies out there. One of my first memories is watching the first moon landing and ever since I have always looked at the moon and wondered what it would be like to stand on another world. That moment in human history inspires me and makes me believe that if humanity really wanted, we could leave our Earth behind.

Something that ties in with the wonder and beauty is a video based on time lapsed photography taken from a mountain top in Spain. I really cannot find the words to express how this makes me feel, instead all I can suggest is that you take a look yourself here ...

One of the views that comes over in the Cosmos and was something Carl was especially pleased to promote was the need to examine concepts using scientific principles with a sceptical mind. (see earlier blog entries). It seems that Carl believed in the power of testing ideas and following the evidence, where-ever that may lead. 

One of the things I picked up was how many scientific concepts and ideas were around many thousands of years ago but were lost or suppressed by religion and mysticism. Just think if some of these ideas were allowed to flourish all those years ago we as a species may have been out in the stars long ago. Why is it that humans cling strongly to superstition and religious doctrine when there’s no evidence for these things and common sense suggests they are ridiculous. The problem is that many of these things are still prevalent in many nations of the world - an example of this is a recent survey which suggests that the majority of nations have given up fighting anthropogenic climate change (many believing humanity is not responsible because they distrust science), instead preferring to let climate change happen and deal with the consequences.

Another concept that came through often was “if mankind survives”. When looking at the probability of life other than on earth, one think that is discussed is that on many worlds life may have arisen and even reached a state of high technology, but that it is likely that few technologically advanced life forms avoid destroying themselves (could this be us). I often have doubts that we as a species will avoid this pitfall as I see very little in my daily life that fills me with confidence (based on human greed and the me culture that has developed). Carl however seemed to believe that humanity could, given the right motivation, reach out and become more than we are now - what potential. Is there anything as disappointing as potential unfulfilled, this is why the tragic death of any child is so much more disturbing (for me).

I thought I had written about this before but it seems not. Recently while lying on my back in the grass in Northumberland I was looking up at the sky and dreaming of a flight to new worlds. Slowly my mind wandered to life other than on Earth and I began to think about how tragic it would be if humans are the only “intelligent” life in this Universe, especially if we do manage to destroy ourselves and this planet.

Finally you really need to watch this video from Carl Sagan reading part of his book “little blue dot”. Any body who watches this and doesn’t believe that we, as humans, are all in it together and need to sort out our differences, are probably part of the problem. Loosing our religion and superstitions would probably help - in my view.

On a purely personal note this video  shows why Andy Irons surfed. (For those who do not know Andy died this year) It also resonates with me because I have to say that I feel exactly the same as I am always a better person when I have surfed, and it brings me peace, helping me with my own personal demons

Alone, Us?

The New scientist of 7th May 2011 had several interesting articles ranging from a guide to humanities search for alien life to how light can effect our health and a consideration of the limits of knowledge.

The search for alien life looked at the methods we use to find planets that have the potential to support life, but the thing I found most interesting followed the detail and was covered by the headline “Are we Unique?” The question was considered by Caleb Scharf (Director of Columbia Astrobiology centre in New York). The stand out thought here was that although it may seem inevitable, it could be that we are an extreme rarity “a Goldilocks event in time, space and the roulette wheel of evolutionary history”.

Personally I believe that although the odds of life existing elsewhere are fairly high (see details page of blog for more on this), we are in fact that extreme rarity. Now although that’s my belief, I also believe that the discovery of life elsewhere  could be the “kick up the backside” mankind needs to make us realise we are one species not many disparate groups. It could be what we need to really see the best of mankind. There should be a deal more about this to follow when I get onto Carl Sagan.

The limits of knowledge article is worth a read if you can get access to the New Scientist, putting forward several interesting points. 

The article that really caught my eye was how light can have a major impact on our lives, especially sleep patterns and health. As some-one who suffers from sleep problems it gave an interesting insight into how we require different intensities of light during the day and light of different wave lengths at night. It seems that all our light pollution can be having serious effects for us all. There were also some useful tips about light and achieving a good nights sleep (see details page).