For example what started as a space race during the Cold War has turned into a global partnership. The Mars InSight Lander, The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport, was manufactured and managed by American companies but a lot of the instruments on it were made by European Agencies. The International Space Station has been in operation for over 20 years. And, since the end of the Space Shuttle program, all crews have launched to the ISS from Russia.
As far as new technology there are a lot of things we use every day that may not exist if not for the space program. For example memory foam pillows and mattresses. Memory foam was created so that the seats would be individualized for the crew who would spend long amounts of time in them. However the seats needed to be able to adapt to different body shapes and sizes. Hence memory foam which would fit the person in the seat and then return to a rest position for the next person. Also the thin reflective heat blankets that come in emergency kits and first aid kits got their start because of the space race. A third invention I never realized before is ear thermometers that allow temperature to be taken from a distance, thanks to space exploration. And scratch resistant lens for glasses started by NASA trying to find a material to make visors in astronauts' helmets.
Now I've been thinking about another reason I love Space Exploration. And that is for the simple desire that we all have to know. They say curiosity killed the cat but I call that a prime example of "you spot it, you got it" for humans. We love to learn and know and explore. A desire to know has brought people around the globe, inspired humans to take flight, and in 1968 on Christmas Eve it caused man to look back at Earth from the moon as the crew of Apollo 8 saw Earth rise:
Now 50 years after that mankind is about to achieve a new grand accomplishment. On New Years Day New Horizons will flyby Ultima Thule (2014 MU69), which I have just learned I was saying wrong up until today. Ultima was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014 while it searched for objects that New Horizons would be able to flyby after it's 2015 flyby of Pluto. Which brings me to another topic that I love (and a big reason why I love New Horizons) Pluto!
Pluto is my favorite planet, yes planet I will continue to call it a planet. In July of 2015 when New Horizons passed Pluto I was in my car driving from TN to NY. I had just moved and was returning to take another car load of stuff from our old house to mine in TN so we could sell the house in Levittown. As I drove I was listening to a variety of stations but tuned into an NPR station to hear the early reports of the flyby. And as I drove the NPR broadcasters described the images and Pluto's giant heart. Well fired up by the discovery I went home and made a change.org petition urging for the re-evaluation of Pluto's status as dwarf planet so that it would be reclassified as a Planet. And because I am bad at promoting things and social media I only got six signatures. I know it isn't because no one agreed because I have spoken with a lot of people and they do agree. In honor of New Horizons's continued exploration I am re-opening the petition and hoping for at least another six signatures before it gets closed again by change.org. Pluto is a Planet Petition
Anyway back to New Horizons: the entire reason for this post. I can't stop thinking about it. I am so excited for New Year's Day to see what new discoveries it will make. I mean it has already done so much since being launched from Cape Canaveral back in 2006: an encounter with an asteroid, capturing photos of a volcano plume on Io, gravity assist from Jupiter, crossing the orbit of Saturn and Uranus, and the 2015 flyby of Pluto. Here is a summary photo of what New Horizons accomplished with the 2015 flyby:
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| Pluto before and after New Horizons |
In preparation for the New Year's Day flyby of Ultima Thule I purchased and read the book Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon. Here is a link to the book on Amazon (Chasing New Horizons.) Also a link to my review of the book Amazon Chasing New Horizons review. The book covers the entire project from when it was first suggested to go to Pluto, the process of getting funding and designing the space craft, and finally the flyby itself. Even though I obviously know the flyby happened I still felt anticipation with every setback and difficulty they ran into during the almost two decade long project. It certainly opened my eyes to all that goes on behind the scenes and it presented the information in an engaging way. I felt like there was a perfect amount of scientific background info and explanation as well as the administrative information to give a full understanding of the project. And it certainly bettered my appreciation for what it took to get New Horizons to basically pass Pluto at the rough distance of New York to Mumbai, 7750 miles. I can't recommend this book enough! Also after seeing someone who happened to be reading the book when he recognized Alan Stern on a plane and then got it signed I will forever carry this book with me just in case I recognize Dr. Stern anywhere.
Speaking of New Horizons's PI, Principal Investigator, as I sit here writing this (December 26th) I just saw the tweet from Alan Stern that says:
"Breaking . . . Signal has just been received at mission control, New Horizons has successfully started its flyby program of stored commands and the exploration of Ultima Thule 4 billion miles away! THIS IS IT FOLKS, FLYBY HAS BEGUN! Go New Horizons!!"
Actually that is another pretty awesome fact about Alan Stern, he is very active on social media and frequently likes and retweets and interacts with other people's tweets. For as much as people complain about social media Dr. Stern is another example of social media gone right. His interactions with others on social media certainly makes him a great advocate for spreading awareness of space exploration and an interest in astronomy.
Back to New Horizons, though, here is one of the coolest pictures to return to Earth from New Horizons of Pluto's blueish haze caused by sun interacting with atmosphere.
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| Photo from New Horizons and NASA |
Once New Horizons reaches Ultima and has its flyby it will be over 18 months before all the data and information collected returns to Earth. As the flyby date and time approaches I have been tracking New Horizons using a website set up by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, home of New Horizons. Where is New Horizons?
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| Photo from JHUAPL |
Another cool thing I did while waiting with great anticipation for the flyby was to send a message to New Horizons and Ultima Thule though JHU APL. People could type in their names and select a message that will be sent to New Horizons for the Flyby, again another way of extending our reach and inviting people to feel part of this great accomplishment in space exploration.If you are wondering when exactly we will see initial images from the the Flyby here is a helpful image:
Now after I first saw this image I set my phone's world clock to show me time in UTC which is six hours ahead of my time (central). But then while reading a blog by Emily Lakdawalla about the upcoming Fly by on the Planetary Society's page, a non-profit organization to advocate and spread awareness of space exploration, she made a great point. The time for information to be sent from New Horizons to Earth is six hours. Which is the same as my time difference to UTC. So basically if you are in central time, as I am, those times represent perfectly when the information would be reaching the New Horizons mission control. Emily Lakdawalla blog.
As the flyby occurs New Horizons will stop transmitting info back to earth so that it can focus on collecting data then at around 10:30am eastern time New Horizons's mission control, located in Maryland, will receive a quick update on New Horizons before the first 4 hour long transmission of scientific data begins. By mid afternoon on January 1st that first transmission will be received but I'm not sure how long it will be before that information starts finding its way to news sites. I assume pretty quick.
At its closest approach to Ultima New Horizons will be just over 2,000 miles away that is equivalent to the distance of Nashville, TN to Los Angeles, CA! Remember how at the beginning of this post I said Ultima was discovered in 2014, that also means New Horizons will be sending back scientific information about a world we didn't even know existed back in 2006 when it launched. That is mind blowing.
And to add to the event Dr. Brian May, astrophysicist and Queen guitarist, will be premiering his new single "New Horizons" in honor of the spacecraft's 12 year journey from NASA's Mission Control during the flyby. So far he has released two teasers on his Instagram account with a promise of a third.
To quote Brian May:
"I was inspired by the idea that this is the furthest that the Hand of Man has ever reached - it will be by far the most distant object we have ever seen at close quarters, through the images which the spacecraft will beam back to Earth. To me, it epitomizes the human spirit's unceasing desire to understand the Universe we inhabit."
And that "unceasing desire to understand" brings me full circle to the beginning of the post. It is something I love about space, it is something Alan Stern talks about in the book, and it is what Brian May will be singing about on New Years Day as New Horizons once again finds and passes another new horizon.
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