4 Reasons Humanity Fails to Achieve its Goals

This post is heavily based on the Dump Little Man post 4 Reasons You Fail to Achieve Your Goals.

Are we the type of species that makes big plans but just never finishes the plan? Do we make resolutions during one generation that are dropped like a failed Hail Mary pass by the next? Perhaps, as a species, you can't stay on track. Every species contains a goal seeking mechanism, yet we do not achieve our goals. The following list are things that will not only prevent space habitation, but will prevent other multi-generation goals and macro-engineering projects.

1. Limited Beliefs

Look, if a species thinks it will go extinct, it will. If its religious text predict an armageddon, people will feel helpless to stop an armageddon event. They will feel as if they are doomed to die as a species. There are some who see humanity as a disease that should be eliminated, how can such a species aspire to greatness? There is a major belief that we have reached the end of out species' technological and social development, how can such beliefs inspire greatness and self improvement? Humanity has unlimited potential, but if we start to doubt that potential we will never be great, we will never be spacefaring and we won't produce a new generation of humans who have hope for a better tomorrow.

2. Picking the Wrong Goal

This reason should not be used as an easy to quit a goal of a species. But, we, as a species, can aspire to the wrong objectives. Wrong goals for a species would include:

• Any goal that splits apart this species and any goal that kills off vast numbers of members of the species. (e.g. wars and genocides).
• Any goal that was developed in an echo chamber; any goal that is an attempt to homogenize humanity.
• Any goal that is focused on proving one group's superiority as opposed to improving the species. (e.g. going to space to prove your nation is better, not to improve humanity)

Not, if we want to pick the right goal, we need to have a species wide dialog and talk about all the things we value as a species and our dreams as a species. We need to keep talking until an idea; a goal is produce that resonates with every human soul. We need to keep talking until we have a goal "that just stands out, something that just feels right" (Dumb Little Man).

3. You Lack Consistency / Patience

So far, humanity has been doing well in space after stumbling at the end of Apollo. We have been making consistent investments in our space programs. But, I fear humanity will get bored with space again and cut all its funding. I fear education programs in place today that will benefit a spacefaring species will get slashed. Space will be vary frustrating, but we must keep at it. We can not start a pattern of short bursts in space activity because bursts will demotivate not only the public, but the hard-cord space cadets too.

4. There is No Multi-generational Plan

Transitioning an idea or a movement between generations could weaken it. I'm young, I do not understand the feelings humanity had during the first moon landings. I have not experienced the struggles that opened up the space field. I was born after the first moments of the space age. This might be a problem. Without this experience, I value the Apollo program less; I only read about Apollo, I can NEVER experience the emotions it carried. The leaders of the space movement know what space means because they all worked their butts off to get a space program up an running, but they are all old. I did not experience all the pain that the older generation went through to set up a space program. Because if this, I will never understand space as well as my seniors. This is why we need a multi-generational plan. We need something that conveys why the generation before mine struggled so much and worked so much to open up space. I need a document that conveys the feelings that Apollo generated in humanity. I need to know what the generation before me wanted to do with space; I don't know that yet. Yes, there are documents that conveys this message, but they are scattered and they are really history lessons, not a mission plan that I can follow. What my generation needs is the next step. In any goal this species takes on, the next step must be CLEARLY conveyed to the next generation.

Reactions

-Is there any other reasons humanity can fail one of its goals?

-Do we need a multi-generational plan?

-Can bursts in space activity work?

-Can we still be great if we believe we are worthless?

Resources

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In Case You Skimmed

The following reasons prevents any species wide goals from being achieved:

• Being an unconfident species
• Picking the wrong goal as a species
• Not working consistently towards that goal
• Not having a multi-generational plan

Our Education System May Be Blocking Space Habitation

Now, I want to be very clear, a highly educated society is needed for space habitation. But, I think our high schools destroys important qualities of human beings that provides the emotional motivation behind space habitation. It destroys the morality of students and morality is required in the space field because shady operations who value profit over human life will not survive in space; space will find the flaws in anything and use that flaw to rip apart the mission. Our education system is not about education, but crystallization. Students are unwilling to think outside of the box, because if you stay in the box, you are guaranteed an A.

I wrote this essay for my final writing task of high school. We had to argue against one educational philosophy then create our own...

The degree is like Ithaca, but the journey to earn a degree has changed greatly. A college degree is not a symbol of years of honing and patient meditation on a field, it has become a symbol of a fast track to the upper-middle class. Students' “thoughts [do not] remain lofty [and]... a fine emotion [does not] touch their bod[ies]”¹. Students rush to take AP classes so they may earn credits to graduate from college a year early. Students expect a degree to bring them riches, only to come out of college passionless and doomed to mediocrity. Arriving at Ithaca does not make a man great. What makes a man great is the lessons learned from the road and a passion for life. However, in the modern day, this slow foot journey has been replaced with a bullet train, nonstop from childhood to Ithaca. But, something is lost in the most recent generation. Students do not have a reason to want to go to Ithaca and the slow journey the builds an understanding of what Ithaca, what a degree is, has been lost. Students are just placed on the train by parents who want their children to experience Ithaca, but do not when them to experience the hardships that make makes Ithaca a great place. Students will continue to have their humanity torn from them if we do not demolish those rail lines.

High schools still have a utilitarian mindset despite administrators' ongoing effort to make high schools creative. This has nothing to do with how the teacher conducts his lessons, the goals of the administration, or the intentions of the community; for no parent or teacher wants to crush the spirit of a child. It is due to the culture that has arisen around schools that encourages students to approach school with a utilitarian perspective. The ideal student of top schools like Whitney High School or Princeton High School is the student with a 4.0 GPA, a 2400 SAT score, and 36 ACT score. This ideal student is praised and lusted after so much that "confused kid[s have] parent[s who] t[ell them] it [is] okay to cheat if [they] earned an A, because [their] future was at stake. Just don't get caught, [they] are warned" ². This is reminiscent of Mr. Harthouse, one of the model utilitarians in Hard Times, who said "I am not a moral sort of fellow... and I never make any pretensions to the character of a moral sort of fellow. I am as immoral as need be" ³. It is as if the student were a machine, expected to give output without giving thought to aspects of humanity like morality or emotions and it is this utilitarian temperament that is creeping into our schools because of the over-reliance on grades.

The current high school system relies too much on grades. As a result the morale and the morality of the student are both negatively affected ⁴. Students cannot afford to fail (anything short of the model student is defined as failing) so they stick to topics that they are comfortable with and ideas which are already well proven. But, in the process they loss the joy of learning, the thrill of discovery and do not grow. Regurgitating information can guarantee an "A", and in a system where an "A" is next to godliness, that is what students will, unhappily, do. Uncertainty is required to keep the student interested and allow the student to grow⁵. Yet, uncertainty can bring a failed project, a failed writing risk, or a easily dismissed idea and to become like the model student, one can not fail, ever.

Furthermore, developing a strong moral fiber in the school is discouraged when grades are idealized. Not only in the sense of cheating, but in the sense of other acts where one's conscience must be the guide. Students who value grades alone (as opposed to self-improvement through learning) choose not to help others with their work; students who value grades alone will not look up from the textbook or even explore harder ideas ⁶. In the movie Smart People, Vanessa, a perfect example of today's model student, continues to study after learning her father is in the hospital with head trauma. Later, Vanessa is concerned not about her father's health, who has had his license revoked because of seizures, but is worried over her lack of transportation to the various resume padding extracurricular activities that have become a keystone in the passionless high school experience. Why should Vanessa or any student do anything but look at their books when they are members of a system which does not give rewards to the helpful, the empathic or the curious and which lavishes praise on the workaholic? Students who value grades alone do not learn to respect learning or life. They do not enjoy the rare experience that is life. They do not give the course material the time it needs to mold and shape a person or try to explore unmapped ideas.

In order to develop a passion for learning, the student must be pushed outside of his comfort zone. In search of the A, students would "rather accept an A in an easy class rather than fail a hard one and learn a great deal from it"⁷. The student who said this has lost the value of an education while remaining within his comfort zone. The most is learned when the student is challenged and occasionally fails. For example, a student can procrastinate in easy classes will never learn, until he enters the real world, that procrastination is a bad habit. Schools provide a unique environment where students can fail and learn from the failure without the disastrous consequences of the real world. This unique environment is squandered when students are too fearful to take risks; when student believe that everything they have worked for can be lost with each test or essay.

Thus over reliance on grades threatens the following traits which all students enter with: curiosity, the joy of learning, morality, happiness and passion; the on going search for the uncertainty and the trill of unmapped ideas; the certain quark and small gift that lights up a person when they are able to use it, the fulfillment the one searches for when they follow their dreams and the burning desire for growth. When these are lost, any hope of success is lost and mediocrity is ensured. Maybe William Farish did not intend for this to occur when he developed the letter grade system, but this incentive has created the opposite effect; students only want an A, they do not want to learn.

Tony Robbins, life couch and expert in leadership physiology, has said “I believe that the invisible force of internal drive, activated, is the most important thing in the world. I believe emotion is the force of life. All of us here have great minds... and with our minds we can rationalize anything. We can make anything happen”, but there are some people who have all the “education, money and background [they could ever want, but they] spend... their life going in and out of rehab” ^{8 9}. Knowledge is power, but this can not power the soul. One needs something far more powerful then knowledge to achieve, one needs a purpose, a focus, a passion. The current philosophy of high schools not only fails to to promote this essential ingredient to the human experience, but crushes it. “Melissa Roderick, the professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and co-director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research [speaking on college drop outs said] 'If you go into any urban high school right now and sit down with parents and kids and ask, 'What do you want to get out of high school?' there's only one answer: 'Graduate and go to college.'”¹⁰. This mentality is not limited to urban schools, across the world “graduate and go to college” has been the sole directive of all schools. While this objective should be held in high regard, it can not be the sole reason for the school to exist, which shall become the sole reason for the student to go to school; for the philosophy of the school is reflected in it's students. If it is the sole reason, there lacks an internal reason to graduate from high school and college. The student is simply told that he needs to graduate and go to college. This external reason is reinforced through fear of parents and fear of poverty. Those two reasons will not give the student the strength to complete college. For that, the student must realize himself that college is necessary for his goal in life. This is why schools must teach personal development. So that the students can find powerful reasons to support their actions. Once that happens, everything that student intents to do will be done. But, Tony Robbins also points out one more ingredient to success.

Emotional fitness must also be mastered by the student to be successful. If you where to take two job applicants from the same, elite college with the same grades and the same qualifications. It is a dead even tie between those two applicants. But, one applicant was completely unconfident, did not look the interviewer in the eye, was shaking like a dryer the whole time and seemed miserable. The other was confident, radiated passion and love for his work; he made everyone smile when he walked in the door and was full of seemingly endless energy. Who is getting the job? But this is not the only reason schools need to train students in emotional fitness. If the student falls in love, or lusts after someone or feels remorse for a past action, that student will be debilitated as these strong emotions rips through their body. If the student is not trained in emotions, that student will be overwhelmed. But, having complete control over one's emotions gives unstoppable power to that person. Sissy, in the novel Hard Times, was able to wield her emotions with devastating effect. Sissy who does not conform to the utilitarian model student and who is untrained in logic is able to convince Mr. Harthouse to leave town with a “blending of gentleness and steadiness that quite defeated him”¹¹. Thus, emotions play an essential role not only in life, but in success.

W.E.B. DuBois said “to stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires”. The challenge of school builds the fire of passion in the student; to grasp new ideas and unmapped thoughts creates a longing for more of the unknown. Yet, because of the risk aversion caused by the grading system and because of the danger of pursuing the unknown, student stay within comfortable theories and ideas. Never really exploring past the area their teacher has laid out. This puts out this great, life giving fire the school ignites in the student. The student, fearing nonconformity, stops feeding the fire within, which eventually dies. Water is poured on this fire when the student ignores morality in order to become a copy of the model. Emotions become roadblocks and the student looses passion, the only difference between humans and computers. This will lead to the most miserable, lifeless people who come home to tired to take off their shoes. The mighty fire in every student must be protected or else the world will not grow, but will wallow in mediocrity. We must let this great forest fire burn in every student because only in fire does the seeds of youth become strong, mighty trees. ~ The Burning School vs. The Icy School: Destroying and Restoring the Passion and Emotion in Education by Daniel Sims A.K.A. Aron Sora. Republish with permission from me since I wrote it.

I want to quote the key line of my essay. "Thus over reliance on grades threatens the following traits which all students enter with: curiosity, the joy of learning, morality, happiness and passion; the on going search for the uncertainty and the trill of unmapped ideas; the certain quark and small gift that lights up a person when they are able to use it, the fulfillment the one searches for when they follow their dreams and the burning desire for growth. When these are lost, any hope of success is lost and mediocrity is ensured". This does not only apply to the individual, when a society losses these things, it is doomed to mediocrity and crystallization. A society that can not challenge it's ideas will not be able to adapt to space, which will need social concepts untaught of or unimplemented. Without curiosity, space losses something. We have explored because we wanted to know what was over the next hill; we were curious and that provides a lot of the motivation behind space exploration. Societies which are happy with remaining it's current state will not look to better its self or challenge its self. I think our high schools are making people risk aversive. Space is a huge risk, but the risk can be managed. High school students are trained to not take risks, period. Even if the risk can be reduced.

I can not prove this claim, but I think people who are in the space field are the most passionate people in the world. They could be making more money in other fields, they could be in a less politically challenged field, they could take a easier job with more security, but they are here. What amazes me is that so many NASA employees tweet and are blog about space. Space seems to run through the blood of people interested in it. Space is the motivating factor for most everything in these people's lives. In short, I have yet to find a truly miserable NASA employ or sad space cadet. Now, they could be having a bad day because their dream was attacked all day long, but ask anyone at NASA or Virgin Galactic a question and they will light up. This field is tough, yet we all in the space field have internal reasons to be in that field or else they wouldn't be there. Space is one of the most frustrating areas of human activity and we need a society which has passion for space; an internal reason to have a space program and our schools destroy this aspect of humanity. This is why Apollo failed in it's long term goals, we only went because of external reasons (Fear of the USSR) and had no wide spread passion or internal reasons for space.

So, I think we need a school system which preserves passion and the other critical human traits before we can develop space.

Reactions

-Is passion important in the development of a spacefaring species?

-Is our society risk aversive?

-Do you think our education system prevents the development of emotional support for space habitation?

-Can we think inside the box and still achieve space habitation?

Resources

1: Cavefy, C.P. “Ithaca” Nina Alvarez. 31 May 2009. <http://ninaalvarez.net/2007/05/03/poem-of-the-day-49/>

2: Humes, Edward. School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School. Florida: Harcourt, 2003 Page 104

3: Dickens, Charles. "Hard Times: Book 3: Chapter 2" eBooks@Adelaide. The University of Adelaide. n.d. Web. May 27, 2009. <http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/d54ht/chapter30.html>

4: Schwartz, Berry. "Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom." Feb 2009. Online video clip. TED. Accessed on May 23, 2009. <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html> 12:40 - 13:12

5: Robbins, Tony. "Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do" Jun 2006. Online video clip. TED. Accessed on May 23, 2009. <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tony_robbins_asks_why_we_do_what_we_do.html> 11:04 - 11:51

6: Schwartz, Berry. "Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom." Feb 2009. Online video clip. TED. Accessed on May 23, 2009. <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html> 08:28 - 09:08

7: Humes, Edward. School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School. Florida: Harcourt, 2003 Page 82

8: Robbins, Tony. "Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do" Jun 2006. Online video clip. TED. Accessed on May 23, 2009. <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tony_robbins_asks_why_we_do_what_we_do.html> 1:03 - 1:26

9: Robbins, Tony. "Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do" Jun 2006. Online video clip. TED. Accessed on May 23, 2009. <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tony_robbins_asks_why_we_do_what_we_do.html> 4:04 - 4:10

10: Gehrman, Elizabeth . "What makes kids drop out of college?." HARVARD GAZETTE 04 May, 2006. . 31 May, 2009 <http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/05.04/13-dropout.html>.

11: Dickens, Charles. "Hard Times: Book 3: Chapter 2" eBooks@Adelaide. The University of Adelaide. n.d. Web. May 27, 2009. <http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/d54ht/chapter30.html>

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In Case You Skimmed

-Schools diminish passion in it's students

-Over reliance on grades threatens the following traits which all students enter with:

-Curiosity

-The joy of learning

-Morality

-Happiness

-Passion

-The on going search for the uncertainty

-The trill of unmapped ideas; the certain quark

-Small gift that lights up a person when they are able to use it

-Dreams

-If a society's members do not have these traits, the can not be passionate and active in space

The Connection Between Human Rights and Space Habitation

A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species. Imagine, if you will, a species as a a supercomputer and each member of a species as a processor. If you deny permissions to a processor that processor can not participate in the task.

What if reporters in America where denied the freedom of expression and where blocked from reporting on Sputnik? Would NASA exist? Would humanity have landed on the moon? Would we have a generation of engineers who want to school to fill a "brain gap" and where motivated by Sputnik? Would we have the technologies and interconnectivity brought on by spaceflight? Would we have had a space race?

A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species.

How can this biological supercomputer solve the huge boatload of problems, most social problems, that spaceflight if certain processors are not "loaded" with basic programming to analyze problems. How can we become spacefaring if people can not participate in and understand an increasingly scientific world? Space takes no prisoners, it will find a species' weakness and take advantage of it to prevent it from entering space. Someone denied the right to education may have been the one with the insight we need to become a spacefaring species.

A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species.

With such a massive task, how can one deny the right to participate in a culture? How can you not ask every member of a species their opinion on the group's path; give each member the ability to shape the culture that leaders in the space field will derive the goals of spaceflight from? How can you expect a member of a species to feel excitement for space when they can not participate in the thrill of a launch? When they are too scared to express their excitement for anything? When they can not speak about their passions in public?

A species which denies certain basic rights to any member of that species can not become a spacefaring species.

How can anyone dream of space or look up at the stars if they are denied housing, food, water and health care? What then does the whole species miss by their inability to participate, not only in space, but in all of that species' goals. How can a species survive in space, a place which tests everything to it's breaking point, when it is unwilling to provide for every member?

A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species. When we give every human these basic things, we will be ready; this species will then be mature enough to become spacefaring. Now, looking at how much suffering humans cause one another, I doubt we can inhabit space.

Reactions

Am I right? It it possibly for humanity to move to space while making members of this species second class world citizens? One a scale of one to ten, how much is lack of human rights holding back humanity?

Resources

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In Case You Skimmed

-A species which denies certain basic rights can not become a spacefaring species

-Denying a human their rights removes their perspective from all the problems we must solve

-Denying a human their rights removes any chance of them becoming inspired by space

Space Advocacy for the Space Cadet

I'm going to write an E-book called Space Advocacy for the Space Cadet. This idea was inspired by Problogger's 31 Days to a Build a Better Blog. I want to make a collection of 60 daily tasks that will made the reader a better space advocate. I am giving this book out for free and it will be under a Creative Commons license. This page will serve as a hub for this project.

Do you want to help?

Great, I plan to have a draft ready by July 31st. If you feel like helping me edit it, write a comment to this post. I need help hosting the PDF, so if you want to distribute this E-book, post a comment. If you want to contribute a a task... you guessed it. If you want more privacy, I have a contact form set-up.

People helping

I posted a request for help on Help A Reporter Out and these people have been helping me:

~The Coalition for Space Exploration provided me with information on space advocacy and NASA's effect on society

~The makers of the astronomy software Redshift 7 have made themselves available for interviews

~Dr. Charles E. Gannon is occasionally consulting me on some of the aspects of the project

Release date: October 4th, 2009

Mark your calendars for October 4th, 2009, the anniversary of a major spark in space exploration, Sputnik 1. Prepare to be reignited*.

*Corn not included

Space Habitation Will Be Dirty

Barack wants to create two and a half million jobs. The infrastructure is a huge deal.  This war on work, that I suppose exists, has casualties like any other war.  The infrastructure's the first one Declining trade school enrollments are the second one.  Every single year, fewer electricians, fewer carpenters, fewer plumbers,  fewer welders, fewer pipefitters, fewer steamfitters.  The infrastructure jobs that everybody is talking about creating are those guys.  The ones that have been in decline, over and over.  In the meanwhile, we got two trillion dollars, at a minimum,  according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, that we need to expend to even make a dent in the infrastructure which is currently rated at a D minus. ~ Mike Rowe speaking about dirty jobs at a TED conference. (18:13 - 19:11)

I think the way space habitation is depicted is too clean. Space habitation will require tons of skilled labor. But, if we are only producing enough skilled labor to develop a less then mediocre infrastructures on Earth, we will not have enough people to build and maintain a space habitation. A infrastructure rated at "D minus" on a space habitation means death, it means a complete failure of life support system. Maintaining infrastructure on Earth is easy, when compared to repairs in space. Yet, we can't even handle upkeep on Earthly infrastructures. Mike Rowe's words are a clear warning to the space movement, we will need more skilled labor before we will ever build a space settlement.

Reactions

What can we do to produce more skilled labor? Should Science, Technology, Math and Engineering (STEM) be moved out of the ivy tower or will STEM's exclusivity to academia have no effect on producing more skilled labor for space?

 

SPC #9: Analyses of a Lunar Base Electrostatic Radiation Shield Concept

(Average Read Time: 56 Seconds)

Welcome to the Sunday Paper Club. Every Sunday, this blog will offer analysis of a paper on space habitation and other related topics. These are my opinions on a weekly scientific paper; basically I read the paper and write down my thoughts are I read it. They are subject to my perspectives and believes. I am open to debate, so if any reader believes I have misinterpreted something in a paper, please point it out. I'm only a student and I'm still learning how to read these papers and interpret them. All quotes are from the paper unless otherwise noted. All papers I review are available for free online.

This week we are reviewing a Analyses of a Lunar Base Electrostatic Radiation Shield Concept.

Current radiation shielding is... lackluster. What we use is passive radiation shielding, in the form of plastics. Materials which have a lot of hydrogen in them are effective radiation shielding. But, aluminum, which is the material of choice for spacecraft, produces deadlier radiation when cosmic radiation hits it (Brehmsstrahlung X-Rays is the deadlier radiation produced). At least, according the the Series Mars Rising. We are considering making making spacecraft out of a hydrogen based material, but the shielding effect isn't perfect. The crew will still have to move into a radiation bunker in the ship or in the base in a solar storm.

But, what if we had active shielding. In theory, you could have a radiation shield that allowed particles to slow down. This would avoid Brehmsstrahlung X-Rays since they are produced by sudden changes in a radioactive particles' velocity.

The shield will consist of two spheres made out of gold "plated" Kapton. Kapton is used for it's ability to with stand high voltages. The spheres will be held up by the repulsive forces of like charges. One could achieve the same effect with a Spherical Solenoid (A wire, wrapped into a sphere that when current is applied, creates an magnetic field.)

But, there is a problem with these spheres. The electro-magnetic shield is in the shape of a sphere that just touches the ground. So, particles that just skim the ground will get past the shield. This system also needs 100+ megavolts to produce the shielding effect. High voltage power lines have about 110 kilovolts running through them. That's 100,000,000 volts vs. 110,000 volts. That's a bolt of lighting running around your head. I have trouble imaging a space habitation producing that many volts. However, you could easily keep a system like this cold by exposing it to space.

So, Energy shield are possible, but impractical.

The Carnival of Space #110

The Carnival of Space #110 has been posted at Kentucky Space. Every week, the space community showcases it's best articles. The Carnival of Space is ran by Fraser Cain of Universe Today. Please, if you run a space related blog, post a link to this week's Carnival of Space. If you want to host the next Carnival of Space, check out the new instructions here. 

Zealots in Space Habitation

You need dreamers and visionaries to make space exploration a success. Von Braun was a dreamer and I don't think we would have made it to the moon (certainly not as quickly) if he'd not been there.
We will always need zealots. ~Stephanie B of The Rocket Scientist and Ask Me Anything commenting on We Should Not Be Catered To

Don't get me wrong, the Evangelical Space Cadet and the Interstellar Zealot are two very important units in the war for public support of space habitation. These types of participants in the space movement are the people who change opinion by just speaking about their passions. They are the one's who paint a vision of the future that inspire hope for future generation. They are the ones who tirelessly work without getting paid and we are lucky to have had men like Von Braun in the past who pushed the huge boulder that is this movement when it has no momentum. But, I think these grunts of the space movement have major flaws that must be complimented with something. Just how tanks, infantry, and aircraft compliment each other on the battlefield.

My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

I think this points out exactly what zealots mean for the space movement. We are passionate about space, but we do not have the strength to be present continuously through out his multigenerational plan. If your dual-burning candle burns out during the night, one could very easily replace it, but there will be a few moment of darkness. In this darkness, I fear the space movement could be lost.

The problem is in the passing of the touch from one generation of zealots to another. This would not be a problem if you could pull interstellar flight off in 20 years, we can't. We can not guaranty that the older zealots will resonate with younger people to produce more zealots. This is a multigenerational plan and the movement will morph with each generation.

Having zealots in this movement makes it easy for us. Our passion; our space infused blood is shown through out all our works. That, in addition to our logic, cuts down our enemies who do not have a passion for destroying space flight. Furthermore, we serve as an inspiration reminding those cadets who may have been discouraged why they are in this field. I stopped blogging for about 2 months, but came back because I was still reading the works of those in the field.

Zealots are just an unpredictable blessing, we must plan for when they are not there. Because of the amount of time involved with realizing this vision, we must insure our movement is sustainable. A sustainable process have all it's inputs be predictable.

Reactions

What do you think the zealot's place is in this movement? Will they cause trouble for us each time the movement is handed off to the next generation?

Carnival of Space #109

The Carnival of Space #109 has been posted at the Discovery Space blog Twisted Physics. Every week, the space community showcases it's best articles. The Carnival of Space is ran by Fraser Cain of Universe Today. Please, if you run a space related blog, post a link to this week's Carnival of Space #109. If you want to host the next Carnival of Space, check out the new instructions here.   

Carnival of Space #108 — Solstice Edition!

The day after the summer solstice, It Starts With A Bang hosts the Carnival of Space #108. The Carnival of Space is Organized by Fraser Cain at Universe Today.

Every week, a different webmaster or blogger hosts the carnival, showcasing articles written on the topic of space. It's a great way to get to know the community, and to help your writing reach a wider audience. If you'd like to be a host for the carnival, please drop [the organizers] an email at info@universetoday.com.

This week, we cover how the summer solstice helped determine that the Earth was round. We trek though the best places on Earth to be during the summer solstice. We learn about Noctilucent clouds and how to see the stars better which happen to be visible though this unique cloud. We see about how space is aiding our understanding of Earth and it's environment. We ponder about the possibilities of escaping Earth's gravity without rockets. We consider the moon as we send a satellite crashing into it. We are excited about lakes on Mars, but saddened by robot explores who will never see what once was a shore. We are enlighten by volcanic eruptions on other planets. Youth also makes it into this addition with lessons on how planets are made and an inspiring story of a 14 year old who discovered a supernova.

And there is so much more, check it out at the Carnival of Space #108.

Carnival of Space #93

The Planetary Society Blog has posted this week's Carnival of Space. Posted on the night of the Kepler launch, one can feel the excitement of this blogger. Adding to their excitement, The Planetary Society has launched a Catalog of Exoplanets. It is a listing of over 300 known exoplanets. As usual, we have a listing of the top blogs in the space field as well. Check out Carnival of Space #93

Carnival of Space #91

Next Big Future is hosting this week's Carnival of Space. Next Big Future is a very prolific blog that deserves a high readership. While you are here, promote the Carnival of Space #91 by digging it, it seems empty this week.

In other news, I have a problem set due tomorrow, 8 more problems to go, wish me luck!

A Flaw in My Last Post

I have a very strong bias in support of NASA and all they do, so in my last post, Creativity in Negative Times, I assumed that NASA would be open to internal innovation. But, I have found evidence that proves this is not the case. While dropping entrecards I ran into a mispelt bog [sic]. The first post was an embedded youtube video called Barriers to Innovation and Inclusion directed by NASA astronaut Andrew S. W. Thomas. This video is based on real events that occurred at NASA.
The video details the following roadblocks to innovation at NASA. They are...

• Superiors wanting to stay within their comfort zones
• Compartmentalizing employees
• Assuming ideas from contractors means they are wasting working time and contract restrictions (It is possible that a passionate employ spends his/her free time doing work)
• Fear of retribution from superiors and other departments
• Fear of losing a contract because of an idea
• Lack of trust in employees and deferring problems to the chain of command
• Conformity to the current direction/Institutional inertia
• Ad Hominem Arguments (Attacking the source of an argument or an idea to disprove the argument or idea)
• Risk aversion
• Worrying about the process to develop the idea with disregard of the outcome.

So, it seems that NASA is not as supportive of innovation as I originally assumed. I found an article about someone who tried to fix this called Wayne Hale's NASA Blog: Stifling Dissent, but after working on fixing this problem...

Still, it is hard to tell how effective the change effort has been. Even though I personally try to solicit information from a variety of folks in a variety of places and ways, the reports were generally that alternate opinions are welcomed, dissent is accepted and evaluated, and we are doing better than ever.
But the anonymous polls and [Internet] feed back says there is still a lot of work to be done.
Recently I had a couple of events which affected my thinking on this. I have been out of the Shuttle Program manager job for almost a year now and a trusted coworker just a week ago told me that people in his organization had been prevented from giving me important alternative choices for some program choices that occurred a couple of years ago. This was staggering. It was happening right in front of me and I was totally unaware that people - who I trusted, who I hoped would trust me - kept their lips sealed because somebody in their middle management made it clear to them that speaking up would not be good.

I will write further blog posts about this flaw I found, it is fascinating and I want to understand why it occurs. This is only my opinion though, is there good that can come out of what I think is a flaw in NASA's management.

Internet in Space

I was over at the blog The Martian Chronicles reading the article "Would You Go?" which asked it's readers wether or not they would go on a one-way trip to Mars. The vast majority of commenters (and I) said they (I) would. When commenting, I thought of what I would do during my free time. See, one can be entertained for hours on end with the Internet. But, the Internet is not available in it's current form on Mars.

That [the long distances] rules out TCP,which requires the computer sending a message to get almost immediate acknowledgement of receipt from the computer that receives the message.The computer will continue to send messages only if it receives a steady stream of such receipts.The impossibility of immediate acknowledgement means TCP will not work over the distances of deep space. (1)

I thought one could take a personal intranet with information needed for the mission on physical memory, much like taking a Wikipedia CD collection to Mars. But, using YouTube on Mars would be fun. How would that work? The current version of the Internet on Mars is the Deep Space Network.

NASA currently communicates with interplanetary and Earth-orbiting missions using its Deep Space Network. The network consists of dishes in California, Spain, and Australia, which are manually set to receive transmissions from a given spacecraft. The main drawback of the Deep Space Network is that it relies on line-of-sight transmissions. That means rovers or astronauts on the far side of Mars must wait until they are back in the line of sight with Earth before sending a message home. To receive the message, the Deep Space Network dishes must be pointed in the right direction at the right time, or the signal will be lost forever. (2)

Meaning, if I were to send a message to Earth from Mars, I would have to send it, hope the message got to Earth and wait for a few hours for confirmation that the message got to it's destination. However, there is a better plan.

 

 

Image Credit: (3)

Imagine the Internet on Earth and a similar one on Mars, linked by satellites, which relay the information between the Internets. These special purpose satellites are called 'gateways'. Now think of it not only as two Internets, but a network of Internets, interconnected by a store-and-forward "overlay" network that forms the backbone across interplanetary space. Each Internet will have a local gateway.(4)

I think this is a very good idea, but I have input. How would I know if there was new content to request. I think there would need to be an index of the Earth's Internet on Mars plus an index of Mar's Internet on earth. This way, I could search the index for information located on another planet. Then, get it. It would need to be updated continuously, so my idea would take up a ton of bandwidth but it would allow for a fast search for information that can be accessed later.

It would have to work like a mail order. I need a catalog to see what a company has, I don't know wether or not a company would have ... tin foil pants without a catalog. Only with the catalog could I request the tin foil pants, which could then be shipped to me. But, the company must keep sending me new catalog every few months so I can see the updates. Otherwise, I could end up requesting tin foil pants which went out of production long ago and miss out on the recycled plastic pants which just came out. (That was the most ridiculous example ever.)

So, I could play Halo 3 over Xbox Live on Mars with the people on Earth. But, I could watch YouTube with a long delay as long as I have a catalog. It would work like this...

only without the real time voice. I did not find on other ways it could work, but please share your ideas.     

 

Sources

(1): Hogie, Keith, Ed Criscuolo, Ron Parise. Putting More Internet Nodes in Space. April - June 2006. CSCWorld. 8 Feb. 2009 <http://personal.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/cleo/hogie-papers/hogie-cscworld-apr-jun-2006.pdf>

 

 

(2): Gray, Rich. On the Edge: Interplanetary Internet. 02 May 2003. Space.com. 8 Feb. 2009 <http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/ontheedge_0305.html>

 

 

(3) and (4): Ward, Deirdre, Rachel McDonnell, Micheal Tinney, Emer O'Donovan, Philip Kelly. The Internet In Space - What Is Happening?. Networks and Telecommunications Research Group. 8 Feb. 2009 <http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.02/space/index.html>

The Cutting Room Floor

I recently entered The Dupont Challenge with an essay about NASA Technical Memorandum 102102 entitled Lunar Production of Solar Cells. (I found a scan of the original document in a database my school subscribes to, but I have linked to a text version that is free online) I can't post the essay I wrote, but I found all this great content which I could not include in the essay for the contest. I also had to clip a section about population because it did not directly relate to science, it was more mathematics based. I also could not support the argument in this scraped section well. I hope in posting it, I will get feedback to make this argument stronger or disprove it. Here is the scraped section of my essay for The DuPont Challenge.

    In about two hundred years the earth will struggle to support humans. The earth has only so many resources. The Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Fact Book mentions that there are 6,706,993,152 living on 148.94 million square kilometers of land that exists on earth. Breaking this number down, that means there is .0222066724 sq km per person (5.48738825 acres) or about forty-five people per sq km of land. Of that, the CIA lists that only 10.57% of that land is arable. That leaves only .0023472453 sq km (.58 acres) of farmland per person. According to the executive summary of Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy, “at least 1.2 acres per person [are] required to maintain current American Dietary standards.”. With the remaining acres, one must provide living space, landfills, roads, workplaces, recreation facilities and health care services to each person.

    In the year 2200 the human population will stabilize somewhere just above 10 billion people. At that time there will be only .014894 square kilometers (3.68038755 acres) per person. The farmland shortfall will be worst with only .00152663496 sq km (.3772397139 acres) of farmland per person. There are ways to expand our farmland, projects like vertical farming are in development. With more food available, populations tend to raise as demonstrated in Human Carrying Capacity Is Determined by Food Availability and Human Population Numbers As A Function Of Food Supply. We could also change our culture to consume less food, but the trend in food consumption is going in the opposite direction. Increasing farmland and changing our culture are not viable solutions. These calculations are based on the assumption that all the land on earth will only be used by humans. In reality, there is less land available due to the large amount of non-human biomass.

    All population is based on a limited exponentiation growth model. The limits on population are determined by the resources available to that population. Should humanity grow to the point where our exponential population growth is limited by our resources then suffering will occur. Any growth past the limit will result in huge starvation rates. Humans will continue to reproduce, even if there are no resources to support a new life. In a world of ten billion people, the limit of our growth as determined by the UN report, we will see unimaginable suffering. Most of these problems can be solved with a space based economy.

I'll be looking around on the cutting room floor for more blog posts. Any criticism or comments are welcomed

NASA-MUST Scholarship Program

Hey, I'm really excited for the NASA-MUST Scholarship Program. (That's why there hasn't been a new blog post in a while) From the scholarship's website:

Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is sponsoring the Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology (MUST) Program, offering support to undergraduate students from across the United States in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines.

Program participants receive a scholarship, NASA internship, mentors, and access to a wealth of professional development opportunities.

The program offers:

• A one year competitive scholarship covering up to one-half of tuition and fees, not to exceed $10,000 per academic year. The scholarship is renewable through the student's junior year provided that all eligibility criteria continue to be met.
• Support from MUST Professional and Academic Support System (PASS) providing scholars with an online student community and professional development/leadership training.
• A $6,000 (10-week summer internship stipend) to participate plus transportation and location allowance not to exceed $1,000. Students will have the opportunity to participate in a paid internship at one of ten nationwide NASA centers.
• Invaluable resources, insight, and experience to further STEM education and career aspirations from the MUST Consortium, comprised of three member organizations: the Hispanic College Fund, the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

Eligibility requirements:

• Must be a U.S. citizen. Students from underrepresented groups (women, minorities, persons with disabilities, and individuals from rural and low-income communities) are encouraged to apply.
• Must reside in the United States or a U.S. Territory.
• Be a college freshman, sophomore, or junior and hold full-time academic status at an accredited college or university for the 2009-2010 academic year.
• Must earn and maintain a cumulative grade point average of no less than 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (un-weighted).
• Must be enrolled in STEM disciplines whose majors are aligned with NASA's core competencies (physical science, technology, engineering, or mathematics).

NASA MUST Scholarship opened November 1, 2008: click here to apply

Deadline for Applications: February 2, 2009

If I get this scholarship, I'm on the fast track to my dream career. I would really suggest any high school senior or college student check this out. It is a really generous offer. Good luck to anyone who applies.

The Intention

Hello, welcome to Habitation Intention, a blog about the expansion of humanity past Earth and onto the universe.

Who am I?

I am a high school senior, 17 years old. I'm also not a doctor, DrBurst is just my Pseudonym. I've had a fairly successful blog before called College Intention, but I deleted that blog due to the topic.  I'm in the works of building danielcsims.com and I'm a AIAA (American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics) member. I hope to major in Mechanical Engineering and my dream is to become a leader in the Space Habitation field.

Why I'm blogging?

I am primarily blogging because I want to do something in the space field during my college years, this was my best idea. I want to document my discovers in this field as I begin my career and share what I've learned. I also want to help others get into this field.  

What is my topic?

This blog will focus on space habitation. I want to focus on the need for space habitation and not space colonization. Habitation means

1. a place of residence; dwelling; abode.

2. the act of inhabiting; occupancy by inhabitants.

3. a colony or settlement; community: Each of the scattered habitations consisted of a small number of huts.

"habitation." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 18 Jan. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/habitation>.

whereas, colonization is associated with the economic exploitation of an area. I want to make the point that we need to focus on getting off earth. Not focus solely on the economic benefit of earth, but the economic benefit of those living off earth. I will also discuss space habitation in general. 

How you can leave me feedback?

Feel free to e-mail me or post a comment. I love to get challenged or critiqued, it allows me to grow, so please don't feel shy to speak your mind.