INCOMING!

INCOMING!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

We have seen the action movies about huge fiery asteroids hurtling toward and slamming into earth.  We have sat, glued to our seats,  as action heroes such as Bruce Willis, and even Clint Eastwood, save earth from certain destruction.

My friend Zeb, when told of the current threat, said:  "This ain't no movie!"  Zeb's right.  This not a movie, at all.  It is, apparently, the real thing.

The official name of this flying rock is "asteroid 2012 DA14."  It is expected to reach us by next February (2013).

At the moment DA14 is expected to just barely skim by the earth closer, even, that some of our satellites hanging in geosynchronous orbit above us right now.

The problem is, as I understand it, there is almost no room for error in calculations -- and -- there are a number of things which could affect the path of the asteroid -- any one of which COULD cause it to drop closer to earth's surface, or even smack us with a direct hit.    

Thanks to the folks in Washington, who continued to milk NASA's budget, over the past couple of decades, or so, we haven't a chance of building a "spaceship" to go out and confront the asteroid and destroy it.  So, in effect, we people of earth are, indeed, a sitting duck.  The experts tell us it would take at least two years to build a ship and we have less that one year before the asteroid either hits us or skims by so close it will make our hair stand on end.

DA14 is estimated to be some 60 meters across.  That would translate to somewhere just under 200 feet in diameter.  Should it collide with earth it would have the power of a rather large thermonuclear bomb.

NASA expert Dr. David Dunham is reported to have said:  " There is a possibility the asteroid will collide with Earth, but further calculation is required to estimate the potential threat and work out how to avert possible disaster ... ."  He went on to say:  "“The Earth’s gravitational field will alter the asteroid’s path significantly. Further scrupulous calculation is required to estimate the threat of collision,” said Dr. Dunham. (as transcribed by Russia’s Izvestia.) “The asteroid may break into dozens of small pieces, or several large lumps may split from it and burn up in the atmosphere. The type of the asteroid and its mineral structure can be determined by spectral analysis. This will help predict its behavior in the atmosphere and what should be done to prevent the potential threat,”(SOURCE:   http://rt.com/news/paint-asteroid-earth-nasa-767/ )

Well. THAT just makes feel sooo much better.

Turns out ... there is very little we can do, not only because it is so late, but because it will be so close to earth.

Now we learn that this asteroid has been orbiting the earth for at least three years.  Some reports say it has actually crossed the path of the earth a number of times.  So ... where is all the fancy equipment we all saw in the movies that detect such threats from space --  and even more important -- where are the plans to deal with a threat like asteroid 2012 DA14?

There is no equipment -- at least not like we saw from Hollywood.  And there are no plans.  Well, that's not quite true.  There are plans -- still on the drawing boards.

OK.  So what if we get lucky ... again ... and this thing just whizzes on by without creaming us.  Great, huh?  Yeah, but it will come screaming back in 2056.  Of course, that will my grandkids problem then.

Two things I wonder about:  How much damage will it cause if it collides with earth -- and at the risk of crying over spilt milk --- why the heck didn't our brainiac scientists see this thing coming before now?

"But if the entire asteroid is to crash into the planet, the impact will be as hard as in the Tunguska blast, which in 1908 knocked down trees over a total area of 2,150 sq km (830 sq miles) in Siberia."  (Source: http://rt.com/news/paint-asteroid-earth-nasa-767/  ) 

Want a  geographical reference?  OK.  Rhode Island is 1213 square miles in size. ( The county in which I reside is 954 square miles)

But why didn't our scientists, astronomers and such, see this hunk of galactic rock and identify the threat much earlier?  Now, I could offer a rambling pseudo-scientific answer that might be comforting to you, but it would be a total lie because, frankly,  I haven't a clue!

You may recall the US military actually shot down a piece of some sort of obsolete space lab, which was reported to be a falling threat (with a dangerous cargo aboard) to earthlings just a few years ago -- and they did it with existing technology... and possibly a bit of pure luck.  Could we not take a shot at it with the same weapon?  Again, I don't have a clue.

The worst of it, at least for your's truly, is feeling like the proverbial "sitting duck."  I don't like it ... at all.    

Please don't give me the "c'est la vie" response.  I suspect that is partly to blame for our being a target in the galactic shooting gallery.  I mean -- this is NOT an uncommon occurrence.  Strip all the water and foliage off our little planet and it has the appearance of a golf ball.  No.  Its not like we didn't know there was/is a chance we will be struck with another chunk of planetary debris from Mother Nature's slingshot.       

Well, maybe I'm upset for nothing.  According to the experts on the ancient Mayans and their astronomical expertise with calendars (as well as their advanced ability to predict the future) the end of the world is currently scheduled for December 21st of 2012, anyway. 

So what's to worry about, huh?  Nothing, I suppose, so long as it was not the SAME scientists who interpreted the Mayan calendar who also decided Asteroid2012 DA14 was not going to be a problem for earth.

GEEZ!

J. D. Longstreet

In The Beginning...

I originally published this post in 2008 on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission.  I feel that tonight is a good time to repost it.  I do hope you enjoy it.

Three words read by William Anders aboard the Apollo 8 mission on Christmas Eve 1968.

1968 was our Annus horribilis. It was a year of unrest at the Democratic National Convention. It was the year that saw the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. It was a year in which riots and protests were the daily fare on the nightly newscasts. It was a year in which America felt at its lowest point. And America needed a boost.

When the Apollo 8 mission was originally planned the mission was not suppose to go to the moon. It was suppose to be in a low Earth orbit checking out the systems on the Command module and possibly the lunar module if one had been ready by then. Instead the mission was changed and Apollo 8 would be the first manned mission to go to the moon. In itself it would be a very dangerous mission, the first of anything is alway a dangerous mission to accomplish. Because of the nature of the mission and the decision to change it, the true mission was kept a secret from the public until the official announcement on 12 November 1968, less than 40 days before the scheduled launch.

Apollo 8 launched at 7:51:00 a.m. on December 21, 1968. During the flight, three fellow astronauts served on the ground as capsule communicators (usually referred to as "CAPCOMs") on a rotating schedule. The CAPCOMs were the only people who regularly communicated with the crew. Michael Collins was the first CAPCOM on duty and at 2 hours, 27 minutes and 22 seconds after launch radioed, Apollo 8. "You are Go for TLI." This communication signified that Mission Control had given official permission for Apollo 8 to go to the moon. Over the next twelve minutes before the TLI burn, the Apollo 8 crew continued to monitor the spacecraft and the rocket. The S-IVB third stage rocket ignited on time and burned perfectly for 5 minutes and 17 seconds. The burn increased the velocity of Apollo 8 to 35,505 feet per second (10,822 m/s) and the spacecraft's altitude at the end of the burn was 215.4 miles (346.7 km). At this time, the crew also set the record for the highest speed humans had ever traveled.

Five hours after launch, Mission Control sent a command to the S-IVB booster to vent its remaining fuel through its engine bell to change the booster's trajectory. This S-IVB would then pass the Moon and enter into a solar orbit, posing no further hazard to Apollo 8. The S-IVB subsequently went into a 0.99 by 0.92 AU solar orbit with an inclination of 23.47° and a period of 340.80 days.

The Apollo 8 crew were the first humans to pass through the Van Allen radiation belts, which extend up to 15,000 miles (25,000 km) from Earth. Scientists predicted that passing through the belts quickly at the spacecraft's high speed would cause a radiation dosage of no more than a chest X-ray, or 1 milligray (during the course of a year, the average human receives a dose of 2 to 3 mGy). To record the actual radiation dosages, each crew member wore a Personal Radiation Dosimeter that transmitted data to Earth as well as three passive film dosimeters that showed the cumulative radiation experienced by the crew. By the end of the mission, the crew experienced an average radiation dose of 1.6 mGy.

At about 55 hours and 40 minutes into the flight, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to enter the gravitational sphere of influence of another celestial body. At 64 hours into the flight, the crew began to prepare for Lunar Orbit Insertion-1 (LOI-1). This maneuver had to be performed perfectly, and due to orbital mechanics had to be on the far side of the Moon, out of contact with the Earth. After Mission Control was polled for a Go/No Go decision, the crew was told at 68 hours, they were Go and "riding the best bird we can find". At 68 hours and 58 minutes, the spacecraft went behind the Moon and out of radio contact with the Earth.

When the spacecraft came out from behind the Moon for its fourth pass across the front, the crew witnessed an event no one had ever seen — Earthrise. Borman saw the Earth emerging from behind the lunar horizon and called in excitement to the others, taking a black-and-white photo as he did so: Earthrise, seen for the first time by human eyes. In the ensuing scramble Anders took the more famous color photo, later picked by Life magazine as one of its hundred photos of the century.



As they rounded the Moon for the ninth time, the second television transmission began. Borman introduced the crew, followed by each man giving his impression of the lunar surface and what it was like to be orbiting the Moon. Borman described it as being "a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing." Then, after talking about what they were flying over, Anders said that the crew had a message for all those on Earth. Each man on board read the story of creation from Book of Genesis. Borman finished the broadcast by wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone on Earth. His message appeared to sum up the feelings that all three crewmen had from their vantage point in lunar orbit. Borman said, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

After 10 lunar orbit, Apollo 8 returned to Earth on 27 December 1968. A successful and historic mission.

So on this Christmas Eve, we should remember a historic moment in Human history that took place 40 years ago.


William Anders

"We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Jim Lovell

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Frank Borman

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

View at YouTube

On this Christmas Eve I wish to again recall the words of Apollo 8 in wishing you a Merry Christmas.

And God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

STS-135

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

On July 20, 1969 10:56 PM EDT, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. landed on the Moon.  The fulfillment of a commitment to human space travel by President John F. Kennedy:

For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the Moon and the Planets beyond.


We Choose to go the Moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that challenge is one we are willing to accept. One we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win.

John F. Kennedy 12 September 1962 Rice University

It has been 42 years since the first Moon landing and 49 years since President Kennedy spoke those moving words.  Yet recently President Barack Hussein Obama not only cancelled the Constellation program, scrubbing the US return to the Moon and then Mars.  And has saddled the US with an enormous cost to send our astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).  The Russians will do it for $50 million dollars each astronaut.

President Obama claims that his plan will create jobs.  He is right.  Jobs for Russians, not Americans as the people of NASA will be downsizing and 1/3 of the NASA work force will be out of work tomorrow.



Ironic isn't it.  When President Obama first took office he was compared to John Kennedy as the second coming of JFK.  I can now paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen with accuracy:

Mr. President, you're no Jack Kennedy!

Indeed not!  Leadership is not his forte.  He has no idea what it is to inspire an nation, to unite a nation, to make us dream.

I was going to make this post one that would look back on the last 30 years of the shuttle program.  Instead I have changed this into a harangue against Obama's NASA policy.  The typical Progressive policy of destroying those programs that don't give funds directly to his cronies (SEIU).

I will leave you with this last landing ever of the Shuttle:

As the Space Shuttle has pulled into port for the last time, an era has come to an end.

When will America send her best and bravest back into space?  How long will it take?

NASA To Honor Dead Egyptian, Not Once Did NASA Honor One 9/11 Victim!

By Findalis

What is with this government?  Every day there is another slur on American Culture, American Values. This time the agency is NASA.  Instead of naming a new rocket after an American Hero or a victim of the 9/11 attacks, they have decided to name the rocket after an Egyptian Woman killed in the riots.

The United States space agency NASA has okayed the naming of one of its spaceships after a young Egyptian woman killed in late January during an anti-goverment protest, according to Egyptian daily Al-Masry-al-Youm.

The paper quoted Essam Mohamed Haji, a young researcher at NASA as saying on Thursday he had received approval to put the young woman Sally Zahran's name on a spaceship heading for Mars.

Zahran, a 23 English graduated and translator died after she was beaten about the head on 28 January with a truncheons during clashes with security forces in in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Sohag. Anti-government protesters claim her killers were thugs in the pay of police.

“This is the least we could provide to Egyptian youth and revolutionaries. This step represents transferring the dreams of Egyptian youth from a small stretch of earth to the enormous expanse of space,” said Haji was cited as telling Al-Masri Al-Youm by phone from California.

Egypt on Thursday entered it 17th day of unrest, with many thousands of people taking to the streets in the capital, Cairo and filling its central Tahrir Square.

Doctors, bus drivers, lawyers and textile workers were on strike in Cairo on Thursday, with trade unions reporting walkouts and protests across the country.

The protesters have vowed to keep up their revolt against authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak, who they want to leave office immediately.

Around 300 people have been killed in clashes with security forces and over 1,400 have been injured since the unrest began on 25 January against Mubarak, who took power in 1981 and whom they blame for widespread poverty, corruption and police brutality.

Mubarak, a staunch ally of the west, has said he will not run for another presidential term in elections due in September, but the anti-government protesters want more rapid political and economic change.

He has come under increasing pressure from the US to speed the transition to democracy. CIA director Leon Panetta, in testimony before an intelligence committee of the US legislature on Thursday said there was "a strong likelihood that Mubarak will step down this evening."

State television interrupted all programming to present a message from the high council of the Egyptian armed forces that promised to to take "necessary measures to protect the nation," the military also said it would "support the legitimate demands of the people" and remain in "continuous session".

How nice.  We are learning to be Dhimmis very fast.  Next it will be like Great Britain with Halal only meats sold in stores, blasphemy laws stifling free speech against Islam, then forced conversions.

Here is a strange idea for NASA.  How about these men and women to name the rocket for:

Apollo 1

Crew of Apollo 1

Virgil "Gus" Ivan Grissom, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Edward Higgins White, II, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Roger Bruce Chaffee, Lieutenant Commander, USN

Space Shuttle Challenger

Crew of Challenger

(front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; 

(back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.

Space Shuttle Columbia

Crew of the Columbia

If NASA wants to honor a foreign hero they could honor Ilan Ramon (Israel) who died on the Columbia.

Or NASA could honor the 2,998 victims of 9/11.  They could put all the names in a box and pull out one.

Some of the victims of 9/11

If you find this appalling what NASA is doing you can contact them here.

If they will not listen to the AMERICAN TAXPAYER, you should contact your Congressional Representative or Senator.

NASA is funded only by the American Taxpayer.  It should be the American Taxpayer who has the final say on the naming of our spacecrafts.

“Explore or Expire”

“Explore or Expire”
The Lunacy of no Luna Base!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

******************

The Russians are going to the moon. The Chinese are going to the moon. The Japanese are going to the moon. The Indians are going to the moon. The US is not going to the moon.

Historian Stephen J. Pyne said the following: "Exploration is a specific invention of specific civilizations conducted at specific historical times. It is not ... a universal property of all human societies. Not all cultures have explored or even traveled widely. Some have been content to exist in xenophobic isolation."

When future historians look back at America’s decision to curtail its exploration of space, they will surely shake their heads in disbelief. Will they compare the US to the ancient Chinese who sailed unknown seas (seven decades before Columbus’ trek to the New World) to discover and explore the eastern coast of Africa -- then went home and walled themselves off from the rest of the world? I suspect they will. I just did.

Back in 1979 James Michener, in testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, said: "We should be most careful about retreating from the specific challenge of our age. We should be reluctant to turn our back upon the frontier of this epoch... We cannot be indifferent to space, because the grand slow march of our intelligence has brought us, in our generation, to a point from which we can explore and understand and utilize it. To turn back now would be to deny our history, our capabilities."

In an article in Redbook, as far back as 1969, Anthropologist Margaret Mead said: "Many people are shrinking from the future and from participation in the movement toward a new, expanded reality. And, like homesick travelers abroad, they are focusing their anxieties on home. The reasons are not far to seek. We are at a turning point in human history... We could turn our attention to the problems that going to the moon certainly will not solve ... But I think this would be fatal to our future... A society that no longer moves forward does not merely stagnate; it begins to die."

I must ask: What has happened to America’s “vision?” What has happened to our spirit of discovery? Where are America’s leaders with vision?

Look at how our horizons have shrunk. We are turning in on ourselves. We cannot survive as a people. The Bible tells us bluntly: “… without vision, the people perish.”

It concerns me to think that future generations will look back on America’s decision to curtail, even withdraw from, the exploration of space as a national failure. There is no other way to look at it. We are blowing the opportunity we have here, at the opening of the 21st century, to move out into space.

I remain convinced today, as I was as a young man, that man’s destiny lies in the stars, in distant universes and galaxies.

There is a yearning, deep within the human animal, to “discover.” Our little planet is floating in a huge sea of “undiscovered countries.” Given the opportunity, I would happily sign on as a “hand” on a ship of discovery to distant worlds. Why? Just to see what is there, to learn, to explore, and to experience any unspoiled regions of man’s reach.

"The urge to explore has propelled evolution since the first water creatures reconnoitered the land. Like all living systems, cultures cannot remain static; they evolve or decline. They explore or expire... Beyond all rationales, space flight is a spiritual quest in the broadest sense, one promising a revitalization of humanity and a rebirth of hope no less profound than the great opening out of mind and spirit at the dawn of our modern age." -- Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, "From the Moon to the Millennium,” Albuquerque Tribune, 1999

America cannot remain static in the exploration of space. Doing so will only induce a national “shriveling-up” of the most splendid society ever to grace this tiny planet. We dare not take our eyes off the stars.

"There is no way back into the past; the choice, as (H.G.) Wells once said, is the universe--or nothing. Though men and civilizations may yearn for rest, for the dream of the lotus-eaters, that is a desire that merges imperceptibly into death. The challenge of the great spaces between the worlds is a stupendous one; but if we fail to meet it, the story of our race will be drawing to its close." -- Arthur C. Clarke, Interplanetary Flight, 1950

Earth is America’s footstool. We have only to reach out from here, to grasp and secure within our arms, the future of all mankind, which lies out there.

The moon? The moon is only a “way station.”

There is no doubt in my mind that man will move out and open the frontier we call space. I have no doubt that mankind will eventually colonize planets other than earth. I have no doubt that movement has already begun. The vanguard is already probing “near-space.” What troubles me, and raises my ire, is the fact that my America is not at the spear point of that vanguard! I must ask why? The only conclusion I can reasonably formulate is this: America’s lack of leadership. There is a void at the top. America is in desperate need of leaders with vision. Without it, we will surely perish.

J. D. Longstreet