{"id":4406,"date":"2011-07-08T13:50:08","date_gmt":"2011-07-08T18:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=4406"},"modified":"2011-07-08T13:50:08","modified_gmt":"2011-07-08T18:50:08","slug":"space-shuttles-manned-space-flight-and-concrete-boats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=4406","title":{"rendered":"Space Shuttles, Manned Space Flight, and Concrete Boats"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Space Shuttle ended a 30 year run of launches, today, with its final launch at Cape Canaveral<\/a>. Is this the effective end of government sponsored manned space exploration? Despite the euphoria of the 1960s, what with the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions geared to get us to the Moon before the Soviet Union, and along with it an implausibly fictional dream of exploring the universe, we are left with the potential prospect of sending robotic rovers<\/a> to boldly go where no man has gone before. In 1967 we were dreamers: dreaming of Pan Am passenger shuttles, transporting people to operational Lunar Bases by 2001, or of moving past the speed of light to meet up with Vulcans in the 23rd century. Yet the laws of physics (and economics) are unmoving reality checks, and it appears that where no man will ever get to where no man has gone before.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite the silliness of some of our predictions, hopes, and dreams over the past 50 years of manned space travel, I think it’s interesting to note the changes that have occurred between the first and last Shuttle launches. Consider that at the first launch of the Shuttle, in 1981, there were no laptops carried by the astronauts, indeed, there were no laptops at all! The digital cameras they now use to record images and video were also nonexistent. If an astronaut desired to carry a portable music device onboard in 1981, it would have been a Sony Walkman and it would have played cassette tapes. Of course, now an astronaut can slip an iPod in his pocket and carry thousands upon thousands of songs. Or consider the changes in video conferencing, e-mail, cell technology, as well as the computer processing power needed for virtually all of these advancements.<\/p>\n

Still, there is a sense of loss as we bid farewell to this part of our history – a decidedly 20th century aspect of history. Will the future of manned space travel move from government funding to that of private enterprise? If so, what are we to make of such a transition? It might end up that such a venture will be an example of how, save for political or national security issues, government is best left out of areas which private enterprise is fully capable of handling.<\/p>\n

I leave you with a song, penned by Kate Campbell, comparing the building of a concrete canoe with the first end of the space program…<\/p>\n

Bud’s Sea-Mint Boat<\/a>
\nby Kate Campbell<\/p>\n

He lived his life
\nA civil service man
\nDesigning toilets
\nFor the space program
\nHe believed
\nIf we could go to the moon
\nThere’s nothing on Earth
\nA man can’t do<\/p>\n

So he ordered a ton
\nOf sand and clay
\nIn his front yard
\nHe built a frame
\nMost folks said
\nIt’ll never float
\nStill they came to see
\nBud’s cement boat<\/p>\n

A dream is anything
\nThat you want it to be
\nFor some it’s fame and fortune
\nBut for others concrete
\nSometimes you just
\nGotta follow your heart
\nNo matter where it leads<\/p>\n

He gave up fishing
\nAnd most of his friends
\nWorked all night
\nAnd every weekend
\nBut he didn’t mind
\nThe sacrifice
\nCause he’d build a boat
\nThat’s one of a kind<\/p>\n

Well the neighbors thought
\nIt was a real eyesore
\nThey’d say hey Bud
\nWhat are ya building that for
\nAnd knowing they would
\nNever understand
\nHe’d just smile and say
\nBecause I can<\/p>\n

Well he got laid off
\nIn seventy-four
\nAnd they don’t go
\nTo the moon anymore
\nBut down around
\nThe Alabama coast
\nShe still floats
\nBud’s Sea-Mint boat<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Space Shuttle ended a 30 year run of launches, today, with its final launch at Cape Canaveral. Is this the effective end of government sponsored manned space exploration? Despite the euphoria of the 1960s, what with the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions geared to get us to the Moon before the Soviet Union, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,59,36,64],"tags":[659,656,657,658,280,654,655,660,653],"class_list":["post-4406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-rusty","category-science","category-space","tag-atlantis","tag-cape-canaveral","tag-cape-kennedy","tag-kate-campbell","tag-nasa","tag-shuttle","tag-space-flight","tag-space-program","tag-space-shuttle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}