Source: NASA
When I was sixteen years old, I saw the space shuttle Challenger explode. I had cut class, and I was in the process of sneaking back onto my beach-side high-school campus when I heard a soft boom. Overhead, a white pillar of smoke seemed to be falling out of the sky. I wasn't alone; millions of people saw the same image, in the Florida sky or on TV.
Tomorrow, NASA plans to send two spacecraft crashing into the moon. Scientists hope the impact will kick up enough dust -- more than 250 metric tons -- to help the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) find water vapor.
The Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will watch the collisions--and you can share in the experience on the Internet, by watching a live NASA TV broadcast starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT, Oct. 9.
This is the way it's always been with space exploration. Unlike the age of sea exploration, every step into space has been exhaustively documented in the media, which today is interactive and viral.
And as we've explored space, our collective consciousness and our collective unconsciousness have expanded. "They should build spaceships of rice-paper and bamboo, decorated with poems," said British author J.G. Ballard, evoking the magical, shamanistic aspects of the space program.
This morning I spotted an amusing comment in my Facebook stream about the LCROSS mission: "What if we wake up some gigantic creature that decides to attack earth? Would Godzilla help us?" Over the next 24 hours, we'll chatter through social media about the LCROSS mission, share favorite video clips, comment on our blogs, and we'll mashup technology, pop culture, religion, and whatever else comes to our collective imagination. As space travel goes viral, it becomes a shared experience and a kind of ritual -- and thus another means of social integration, as Shareable publisher Neal Gorenflo suggests in his essay on this year's Burning Man.
Tomorrow, we'll see another white pillar in the sky--but this one, we hope, we will be triumph instead of a tragedy.
Great post Jeremy.
I totally agree with the unifying power of space exploration. It is now such an expensive, vast, and intellectually demanding endeavor that it requires the cooperation of nations. One could argue that it's a poor allocation of resources with so many hungry people on our planet, but it brings people together in a powerful way. For instance, the first photograph of the whole earth taken by Bill Anders of Apollo 8 in 1968 catalyzed the modern environmental movement. The photo, in the words of Robert Poole, author of Earthrise, allowed us to see "the uniqueness, smallness and fragility of the Earth for the first time."
So a space mission energized a movement that brought millions of people together to save the earth. Space exploration seems lot more essential when you realize this.
And I have this perhaps odd belief that our destiny is to protect the earth, for every species has its purpose in an ecosystem. Thus it follows that one of our purposes must be to protect the earth, even if the threat comes from space. After all, no other species has the potential to protect the planet from a threat originating in space.
And I don't think it makes any sense to deny our nature. We are explorers. History shows that we are a species that tests and transcends boundaries. No matter the culture, our heroes are those who go beyond, then return to share the age old story of trial and triumph. In this way the hero plays the essential function of renewing society. We should shape a world that honors this reality, that plays to our essence, that allows us to renew ourselves and yes, evolve. So naturally, my opinion is that we should invest more in space exploration in a global collaboration, and benefit from its potential to unify and strengthen our compassion. And perhaps someday save this gorgeous planet we call earth.