Posted on 12/25/2015 6:31:42 AM PST by Kaslin
Measure it any way you like, but this hasn't been that championship season of the "can do" spirit of America. Most of the presidential campaigners spend their allotted minutes criticizing what's wrong with the country, how others have made a mess of things and why voters should put them in charge of changing things.
It's difficult to find the formula through the haze of confusion and fog of rhetoric. There's far more blowhard nastiness than creative eloquence. That's what politics is about, of course, but it gets tiresome in the holiday season when we're craving inspiration from our better angels, if any have survived.
If you crave a reprieve, if only for two hours (considerably shorter than a presidential primary debate), dip into pop culture and see "The Martian," a technologically hip, feel-good movie about what the American spirit can accomplish, if only in a sci-fi movie. "The Martian," set in the not-so-far future, is about leaving a man on Mars and getting him back.
The movie, as you may have heard if you're in earshot of a sci-fi loving teenager (or adult), is about an astronaut, Mark Watney, portrayed by Matt Damon, who has been abandoned on the red planet by his crew. They thought he was dead. The story was lifted from a novel by Andy Weir, which is admired for its authentic scientific detail and mathematical accuracy. Its theme is rooted in challenges to the human spirit and the collective ability of man to find technological solutions to human problems. Life is not easy for a man alone on the red planet.
The spaceship crew, on learning from NASA that their abandoned astronaut is alive and well, are steeped in the tradition of believing that they all owe each other and that it's necessary to cover a mate's back. They desperately want to find a way to go back for him. They're supported by a multicultural network of brilliant young nerds, techies and whizzes at mission control. They don't know whether they can work fast enough to get the space cowboy before he's overtaken by unforgiving forces. But they're sure going to give it the old college try. This is nerd-cool at its best.
The movie has been described as "Robinson Crusoe" in space, or "Ulysses" on Mars and at times the planet Mars looks like Monument Valley, where John Ford spun so many of his classic Westerns. But the temper and tone of the story are more reminiscent of America galvanized by Pearl Harbor, when talented young men and women from every nook and cranny of America got together in factory and field to do what needed to be done to support the soldiers.
On Mars the focus is on one man, but between his resourcefulness and a high-tech team's problem-solving abilities, their science and math are the required backup for the derring-do.
Mark Watney, the lone astronaut on Mars, is a botanist, from a profession that has never before had such an opportunity for heroism. He understands his predicament, and stares into the camera for his video diary and tells himself with more than a touch of warrior bravado: "Mars will come to fear my botany powers."
NASA actually announced that scientists found liquid water on Mars just as the movie opened, but the botanist has to make his own water, drawing on H2O, the formula we memorized in science class. If not exactly Mendel with his peas, he figures out through mathematical calculations how to grow enough potatoes to keep himself alive.
"The Martian" could motivate a generation of young people to see the value of studying math and science. We remain woefully behind in international tests in science and math, with our 15-year-olds scoring 35th out of 64 countries in math and 27th in science, according to the Program for International Student Assessment.
It's probably a coincidence, but just when "The Martian" was arriving at a theater near you, NASA offered "NASA's Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration," which actually outlines a strategy for landing human "spacefarers" on Mars and bringing them home. It's an ambitious plan to propel a spaceship into the 141-million-mile journey from Earth. (You may never complain about a 5-mile commute again.)
While the candidates debate boots on the ground and taxes in the stratosphere, NASA yearns for boots on the surface of Mars. "We are developing the capabilities necessary to get there, land there, and live there," says NASA. John F. Kennedy rallied the nation with a call for man to go to the moon and back, requiring the dedication and disciplined work of an "entire nation." But can we answer such a call again?
We no longer poses the technology to go to the moon. The need for 100% diversity coupled with the need for 100% safety, has put space travel out of reach.
>>We no longer poses the technology to go to the moon. The need for 100% diversity coupled with the need for 100% safety, has put space travel out of reach.
Well said. The “Right Stuff” is now defined as the right skin color.
Its a risk I would personally take
You’re right - “The Right Stuff” has been supplanted by “Free stuff”.
Seems to me that those who really want real space exploration should be quite pleased with Ted Cruz who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Space, and Competitiveness (which oversees NASA). Cruz wants NASA to stop screwing around with global warming BS and studying the earth so they can get back on mission.
The gods of the strivers in this guys story are nerd tech and math skills. Good luck with that.
I say NO to this. Fix our government, fix our tax code, eliminate obozocare in favor of free market interstate reforms, force other nations into trade deals that are truly fair and eliminate the ability of foreigners to take jobs away from Americans.
Then I'll care about what happens on Mars. For now EARTH FIRST!
Shouldn't that be "botanical"?
Even if it results my being “SPACED” trying to get there or coming back.
We've been seeing this statement for 40 years. Fat lot of good it did.
Why should American "young people" spend 4 years and $$$ jumping thru all the math hoops, just to see H1B Visa muzzies and other foreigners taking over all U.S. technology jobs for stagnant wages ?
As a former engineer, I saw it happen multiple times and places since 2008.
Continuing the NASA monopoly on space exploration makes no more sense today than it would to have them to run all the airlines.
Bezos and Musk are the today's hope for space travel. And as for scientific research / explorataion, let the universities, billionaires, and private foundations manage and fund it.
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NASA needs to figure out how to send sturdy robots to places like Mars to do the initial exploring via remote control - robots that can walk, cover more ground and do more tasks than the Rover.
Excellent. I’m stealing it. :o)
On a visit to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2005, Jackson Lee made embarrassing news by asking if the Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted there in 1969 by Neil Armstrong.[2]
Prior to the 110th Congress, Jackson Lee served on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees space policy and NASA.
http://web.archive.org/web/20100409095818/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Jackson_Lee
A risk I would take
It will happen through the efforts of private enterprise. Maybe Americans, maybe not.
If you have not seen the film “The Martian” watch it.
I know I know its Matt Damon but I cheered.
I was like thinking like an engineer plotting solutions course corections
Duct Tape Baby LOL
For what it costs us a month or two pussy footing around with the Middle East, we could have been to Mars a couple of times. And in the process revolutionized cheap power and other technologies.
But, we are so concerned with keeping the KSA in gold, and exporting their version of Wahhabism.
Seems to me our priorities are a little messed up.
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