The Call to Dream Bigger

“Why would you read that?” a girl I went to school said to me when I was little more than youngling.  Even after all these years later I can still see the sneer on her face.  I had been reading a Star Trek book and for whatever reason she felt the compunction to belittle me for it. “It’s not real.  There is no benefit in the REAL world.”  I didn’t get the chance to ask her the circumstances for her lack of enthusiasm.  She simply saw no value in the story whatsoever.  This Fun Police foot soldier gave me the message and walked away.  About a month after she dispensed this sage-like advice to me she dropped out of school never to be seen or heard from again. 

However, in a startling change of pace, Gentle Reader, this blog isn’t about me – it’s about a genre that was once called “Science Fiction”.  Revelries have morphed into realities in recent days.  Long held scientific views are being questioned about the very fabric of the universe.  Basic tenants of the Science Fiction genre are falling into place in “the real world”.  This sort of surge has happened before.  Consider if you will, Mr. Jules Verne.  He was popular in his day (and to this day) for writing some pretty astonishing fiction.  I can almost here some of his readers – fans and otherwise, confronting him…  

“Pure fantasy!  Think about what you’re producing here; space travel, men on the moon, atomic energy an underwater ship that terrorizes shipping fleets, giant animals on some Mysterious Island?  Jules, you’ve got a great imagination but there is no benefit in the REAL world.” 

Verne was a visionary and he championed the cause of science fiction until it all became science fact.  Space travel, humans on the moon, atomic energy, submarine warfare, and genetics augmentations were all in the pages of Verne’s books before they were realities.  One could also point to H.G. Wells, or George Orwell, or a host of other writers for similar effect.  For whatever reason, we find ourselves in a similar state RIGHT NOW.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed but this past week or so there have been some pretty monumental stories that underline the fact that we are going to have to start dreaming bigger.

Tattooine was discovered - http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/09/new-binary-star-exoplanet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Spaceport is a GO.  That means the VSS Enterprise (Virgin Space Ship) will be in orbit in the near future - http://sciencefiction.com/2011/09/24/spaceship-factory-now-open-for-business/.

Now I just need an extra $200,000 for a ticket!

The good people from CERN (who run the Large Hadron Collider) from Geneva announced that they believe that they have found neutrinos that exceed the speed of light.  Yeah, there is the possibility that the laws of physics are about to change.  That’s the news in layman’s terms now to read what the authors of the paper (who are definitely NOT laymen) have to say here is a copy of their paper - http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4897.

USS Enterprise at Warp Speed. 

       

Scientists at The Gallant Lab at UC Berkley are using brain scans to reconstitute video images by using an fMRI machine.  Possible translation: You will no longer have to tell us what is on your mind, we’ll just look for ourselves.  Creepy mind-video reconstruction movie here - https://sites.google.com/site/gallantlabucb/publications/nishimoto-et-al-2011.

And then there’s the man who wants to reconstruct a dinosaur by “de-evolving” a modern chicken.  It’s the cover story on this month’s WIRED Magazine but Michael Crichton was doing the same thing in his books since 1990.  Click on this link for the full story… as WIRED says, “What could possibly go wrong?” - http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/09/ff_chickensaurus/all/1 

I wonder what a Chickensaurus tastes like?

Now that there is no such thing as Science Fiction perhaps the moniker “Speculative Fiction” will make a comeback?  Who’s to say?  What I really want to know; however, is with all of these potential advances in science and technology WHERE is my FLYING CAR!?

How Free Enterprise Will Save the Future of Space Exploration

We were going back to the moon in 2020. I taught a summer camp class on “Star Trek” this past summer at my local Community College. The meat and potatoes of my class was not only Star Trek, but also a history of space exploration, where we are and where we, humanity, may be heading in the next handful of years. I told my class about the Ares and Orion programs from NASA where were going to be replacing the Space Shuttle and that, if the funding was there, humanity would be returning to the moon. Well, funding will be going to other places for now. Chances are NASA will not be able to afford the trip.

Abstract ideals such as exploration are not enough for your Average Joe to hang his hat on and get behind. No. Exploration has to have purpose, has to be a means to an end; it has to turn a profit. Historically, this has always been the case. It is, therefore, not proper for me to throw too many stones towards the bureaucrats.

So just how does one make exploration a profitable venture? Well, you’ve got to give ‘em the old razzle-dazzle. You have to captivate the senses of said Average Joe and you have to show a profit at the end of the day; a reason for reason, so to speak. Before he died, Arthur C. Clarke postulated that orbital platforms could be tethered to the earth like great swinging stones. Why? These tethered orbital platforms would have access for experimentation and tourist dollars but the best benefits would be to communication and to energy production since as this orbital platform is cutting its way through the ionosphere it is producing electricity which, in turn, would be completely green and, as long as the orbital platform remains tethered to the earth, inexhaustible. Think of how many jobs such platforms would provide for Average Joe’s around the world. Speaking of energy and jobs how about orbital solar arrays? Unfiltered sunlight, unspoiled by the earth’s atmosphere, channeled directly to your outlet from Mother Nature herself. Money made.

I don’t have the capitol to attempt either of these options but someone out there does. Don’t believe me? Well, back in my Star Trek class I also told my students about Virgin Galactic and how Sir Richard Branson was going to be putting the future of space travel into the hands of entrepreneurs instead of bureaucrats. This December (2009) the VSS Enterprise is going to be making history. Based on the technology from Space Ship One (which won the X-Prize and is now hanging in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum between the X-1 and the Spirit of St. Louis) it will usher in a new era. Space flight is now within the Average Joe’s hands. Granted that Average Joe will have to pay about 200 K for a ticket but let it be known, that is a LOT cheaper than NASA, not only that but this technology is real; it has happened and, come December, it will be happening on a regular basis. Here is Virgin Galactic’s computer generated promo of what is about to happen – NEXT MONTH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IytjSl6voP0. New Mexico is now the home to the world’s first Spaceport. Seriously.

Free enterprise will save space exploration. It is a matter of time and a matter of profit. We were going back to the moon in 2020. I do not believe that NASA can do it. With the world the way it is unprofitable exploration is not at a premium. If you can make a dollar, yen or rupee that mindset will change in a New York minute. Therefore, I say give Sir Richard Branson a shot; I believe he will have us to the moon much sooner and at a fraction of the cost that the bureaucrats are projecting.

If I could afford it, I’d go aboard the VSS Enterprise inaugural flight. What about you, Gentle Reader?