What's Wrong With the Shuttles?

The shuttle fleet was supposed to provide a cheap rapid turnaround capability for near Earth orbit. There were supposed to be weekly launches, each of which was expected to cost about $5 million. Each shuttle was expected to be robust but was intended to be replaced after roughly 100 launches.

Instead, we have fragile beasts that cost 100 times what they should for each launch and that are only able to launch a tenth as frequently as they should. That means they are doing a tenth of their job at ten times what it should cost to do the whole job.

We need something better, something cheaper that can do a better job. We have needed it for more than two decades. We got one big reminder of this 17 years ago, but we talked ourselves out of doing what was necessary then.

For a fraction of what it costs to maintain our fleet of flying deathtraps we could develop something safer that works better.

Let's hope the latest tragedy will get the ball rolling at last.

Shuttles

The shuttle is a crappy design. It was a compromise between what was needed and what the political system was willing to fund. This undersized space bus was to be an interim solution to having a fleet of reusable vehicles for maintaining a space station and other exploratory efforts.

Space exploration is about the only good investment we have left, the only thing that has continued to pay back every dollar we spend on it several times over. That is what makes the reluctance of our government to invest in space so curious. The money we spend comes back into our economy. The new technology we invent bootstraps our economy to a higher level. Yet shortsighted idiots throw it away by regularly cutting budgets for space exploration.

We have a space station so new it isn't yet complete, yet it is falling apart so rapidly the few residents spend almost their full time patching it up. Launch facilities are falling apart. Decent engineers are moving out to better jobs elsewhere. The people who make decisions seem to have been selected for the chocolate tint to their noses (AKA political connections) rather than for any particular engineering expertise.

To get back on track ... we should remedy the small ills immediatly. Fix the launch facilities, fix the space station. We should work to return to a program of zero defects to support a planned colony on Mars by the end of the century. That includes having the space station become a functional way station for Promethius vehicles.

It also means replacing the shuttles with something better. Perhaps two vehicles, one big one and one little one. Lots of inexpensive little ones with rapid turnaround for personnel and consumables, a few big ones for the big stuff.

It can be done. Doing it can improve the economy. New technology spinoffs can improve our whole world. Having a colony on Mars improves the chances of the human race surviving a few millennia longer ... and of reaching the stars.

Summertime Holiday

We don't have enough holidays in the summer. Except for Independence Day, most of our holidays take place while schools are in session. While some might criticize the idea of a holiday in the middle of what many consider vacation time, please consider this one.

In 1984, then President Ronald Reagan declared July 20 Space Exploration Day to honor the anniversary of Neal Armstrong's landing on the moon on that date. President Reagan said:

Space exploration is a quest for knowledge -- knowledge about what lies outside the confines of the Earth's atmosphere and knowledge about the Earth itself. The information obtained adds greatly to the accumulated wisdom of mankind necessary for an understanding of the fundamental processes and origins of life, providing insight into perplexing mysteries of the universe. Because space has no boundaries, the information and benefits from space exploration accrue to mankind's advantage in many different spheres.

I'm marking that day on my calendar as a day to celebrate the gains from and sacrifices to space exploration.

Survival

If travel in near-Earth space is dangerous, the hazard increases the farther away from our home planet we travel. Near Earth, the hazards are primarily the lack of atmosphere and the temperature extremes. Greater distances mean longer exposure to the high radiation present which cannot be shielded against.

Travel between the planets can become possible if we can go fast enough to keep our exposure low. We will need to use other forms of protection for the long trips between the stars ... or for living between the stars.

One possible strategy would be to make the trip from star to star as silicon entities, immune to the radiation and the extreme accelerations required to reach near-light speeds ... or having a very long life if a slower trip becomes necessary, as with some form of light sail craft. Craft that sail using the power of light, piloted by silicon beings, could be small enough to be produced economically and in large quantities. Upon arrival at a suitable new world, our silicon descendents could construct more conventional bodies to inhabit it.

The alternative is to sit here on this fragile planet until it kills us or until it is destroyed, us with it.

There will be mishaps along the way, but we've got to pack up and move along.

Tuvo Throat Singing

Tuvo is almost unknown, which gave it a bit of fame a few years ago. The noted physicist, Richard Feynman, knew of Tuvo because of his hobby of collecting stamps, which Tuvo produced for collectors as a source of income. He decided he wanted to go there. Read the book, "Tuvo or Bust".

Where?

The northern edge of Mongolia, slightly west of center, contains a small area about the size of South Dakota. Sometimes claimed by China by way of Mongolia, it is currently under Russian jurisdiction. A land of extremes, with temperatures ranging from below minus fifty to over one hundred, it is occupied mostly by nomadic herdsmen who have a strange way to sing.

The basic sound they produce is a rumble or roar, usually limited to just a few notes. In addition, they produce a series of tones and harmonics based on the basic sound, ranging from an octave below to several octaves above the basic sound, the set of tones produced belonging to one of six styles.

I had been making our beds. My back started bothering me, so I decided to take a break and flipped on the TV. I got the information above, along with the story of a blind Blues singer from San Francisco invited to compete in Tuvo's throat singing competition.

Public appearances by representatives of Tuvo are rare enough anywhere, even in San Francisco. For such a person to encounter somebody who introduced himself by singing in Tuvo's unique vocal style and speaking, however badly, in the language of that small country, was impressive. It prompted mention of the competition and a suggestion that this strange looking individual should participate. Being said in public, several people took note. They also took it seriously.

The first step was to borrow a Tuvo grammar and dictionary from the Russian embassy and write a note asking permission for a group to accompany the blind singer, to film a documentary (which, obviously, I was watching). Receiving an affirmative reply, the wheels of diplomacy were greased and the group was welcomed, first into Russia, then into Tuvo. VIP treatment was in order, with tours and dinners. Then the competition.

Over a thousand tried to enter. These were reduced to a slate of slightly over a hundred plus a few foreigners from nearby countries ... and the blind Blues singer from San Francisco (it should be obvious by now that I didn't catch his name).

When it came his turn to perform, our hero first performed a short traditional piece, so short he had been warned it would be considered an insult. Then he sat down, adjusted the microphone, picked up his guitar and started playing a blues accompanyment to his own composition, in his rather elementary Tuvo, three verses long.

At this point I had to turn the program off, so I don't know whether he won the horse and saddle that was the grand prize of the competition. I had to pick Delia up at the airport. After I finished making the beds, of course.

Today's User Friendly is a classic, well worth your visit, especially if you are in the least bit technically inclined.

As I was driving home, my prescription on the seat beside me, I passed a sign that proclaimed "Babies'R'Us". I've passed that sign and the associated store many times before, but this time there was an extremely gravid person walking below the sign, which made me believe the sign referred to her in some special, significant way. Then my mind started to drift.

With a minor change in spelling, the message becomes "babysaurus", a small, seemingly innocent and helpless creature that somehow transforms, over time, into the evil, loud, hyperactive, mischievious "kidsaurus", a creature that has another store dedicated to its needs, using a similar misspelling: "Kids'R'Us".

Contemplating the nature of these two beasts, I soon found myself driving past an elementary school as it was letting out. The kids were reasonably well behaved. Their parents were blooming idiots.

No wonder so many of them get knocked up. They're a brainless lot. However, the only way I can see to prevent their spread is to systematically work at the reduction of the babysaurus population, on which all else depends.

I Was Wrong

Recent research using very powerful X-rays show much more microscopic detail of insect breathing aparatus and it turns out to be far more efficient than previously believed.

The new information shows a multitude of small sacks, placed so that every movement pumps air through the air tubules of insect bodies. Wing movements produce particularly large volumes of air.

Breathing capacity seems not to be a limiting factor to body size. Destroying our atmosphere is unlikely to eliminate flying insect pests.

Would You Like to Read the Novel?

The novel "Chosen" is being posted, chapter by chapter, on my Web Site as I write it. I was going to hold back on the final chapter but I might as well include that as well and post the whole thing.

But several people have remarked that they don't feel capable of reading a whole novel on line. Would you rather download it as an eBook?

I have software that will allow me to convert my existing HTML into Palm format eBooks. Or maybe it was MobiPocket format. I haven't used it for several months, so I'm not sure. I know the readers are available free for Palm OS systems, PCs and maybe even Macs. It is a compressed format, so the download would be fast each time. I'm making the eBooks anyway. I might as well make them available.

Remember, though, that it is a work in progress and that all suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I Don't Really Exist

Spot the Cat, the lady in Turkey who prompts us to answer questions and do things, has asked us to write about ourselves for a collection of our reasons for writing these Weblog things.

Am0 is a fiction. Am Ouil is a fictional character, an ancient alien also known as the First Chosen, created by James Henderson, AKA WordJames, in a pair of novels he is writing, the first of which is available for free reading at WordJames.net, his Web site, as it is being written.

There was some confusion with another James. The other James had a site he called JamesWorld. The similarity was confusing. To reduce the confusion, I created the Am0 site and subscribed to JamesWorld from there.

To justify the second site, I have been trying to write my submissions from the point of view of a non-human alien rather than from my own personal point of view.