Random Ramblings - June 2, 2010

by Daniel Jones

It is with a great deal of sadness that I must witness the death of a great American feat of engineering, the space shuttle.

Growing up in the 1980s, the shuttle was everywhere. As I remember it, people were very excited about the project, and it showed. A shuttle launch and landing was an event, covered by TV news both locally and nationally.

Of course, interest faded and the shuttle was pushed to the back burner, despite performing important work like learning more about space and fixing and maintaining the Hubble Space Telescope, which provides us with amazing views of the universe (Watch the Hubble Ultra Deep Field on Youtube for an eye-opener on how small we are in the universe. It is astounding).

As I write this, Atlantis has just finished what looks to be its final mission on May 26, but will be kept usable for possible rescue of astronauts from the International Space Station should they get into trouble.

What’s next? President Obama wants the transportation of astronauts to and from the ISS to be handled by private companies. He believes NASA should concentrate its efforts on developing vehicles to reach further targets, which may include asteroids and Mars.

The shuttles cannot be used in that capacity because their systems keep them to operations near Earth.