Flying into Space, really want to be reminded?

[shootingstar]

.....of our insignificance.

William Shatner experienced grief and sadness on Bezo's spacecraft.  Another couple did too. They all cried afterwards.  Shatner said seeing Earth was so alive and vivid.  Seeing blackness was like a funeral.

Maybe Chris Hatfield, Canadian astronaut, felt the grief but he didn't have it in his autobiography. 

I don't have a need to fly off into space to appreciate Earth and the people I've known. 

[MickinMD ★]

On 10/30/2022 at 10:55 AM, shootingstar said:

.....of our insignificance.

William Shatner experienced grief and sadness on Bezo's spacecraft.  Another couple did too. They all cried afterwards.  Shatner said seeing Earth was so alive and vivid.  Seeing blackness was like a funeral.

Maybe Chris Hatfield, Canadian astronaut, felt the grief but he didn't have it in his autobiography. 

I don't have a need to fly off into space to appreciate Earth and the people I've known. 

I've always thought of current outer space technology as being the first steps in exploring the solar system.

We are a very, very long way from ever being able to travel outside of it.  Even if we could move a spaceship 6,700,000 miles/hr, 1/100th the speed of light, while avoiding space dust from whacking it, it would take 400 years to reach the next closest star to our Sun.  It will take a break through like traveling through worm holes or understanding more than 3 physical dimensions before we ever get to other stars.

But, there may be ways of profitably mining asteroids, moons, or planets as the Earth depletes itself of easy to use resources.  There will be a time when humans inhabit the Moon and Mars and are self-sustaining.  That's important if the time comes when the human race destroys itself on Earth.

As a scientist, I've realized since the 70's that, in my lifetime, there won't be anything like "2001: A Space Odyssey" where, in 1968, everyone thought we'd have colonized Mars long before 2022.  Then the logistical problems, the problems with cosmic radiation, etc. became obvious.  So that's a long way off.

Note also that Bezos' spacecraft is mostly a gimmick.  It goes high enough so that the atmosphere is negligible and the sky appears black.  It only simulates weightlessness by having the spacecraft fall toward the earth at the same rate the people's bodies inside are falling toward the earth so, it seems to them like they're weightless.  It's kind of like an elevator when it begins to go down and you get those butterflies in your stomach.

Even in orbit hundreds of miles up, the astronauts still weight over 80% of what they weighed on earth.  It's just that centrifugal force outward is equal to the force of gravity inward.  The centrifugal force is like theme park rides that push you against the back of the chair you're in as it moves in a circle.  Since it balances gravity in an orbiting craft, the people inside feel weightless.

[jsharr ★]

Apparently I see space on a pretty regular basis.