Space and space exploration is having a moment. And why shouldn’t it? There is no activity that is as cost free as an interest in astronomy. All you have to do is walk onto your back porch on a clear night and look up.
Of course, those who want to go beyond the wonder of a sky full of stars to take a more academic interest can do so easily — write down nightly observations seen from your backyard and take advantage of star gazing programs like The Des Moines Astronomical Society’s Ashton Observatory in Jasper County Conservation’s Ashton Wildwood Park near Mingo. But the wonder is still there.
When the news of the blood supermoon hit the papers in September, I was elated. I’m from the city, and light pollution tends to dull, if not ruin, astronomical events for those around miles of lighted streets and bright downtown skylines. But this year the country skies of rural Colfax were just a two minute drive.
The night of the total lunar eclipse, my girlfriend and I put on our sweats, jumped into the Chevy and traveled to a gravel road west of Colfax. As the eclipse reached totality and the moon looked dipped in crimson, its light dimmed revealing the band of light from the center of our Milky Way galaxy which appeared in grand detail. One hundred-thousand stars became visible to the naked eye — no LED or tungsten street lamps to hide their glow.
I wasn’t alone in looking up that early Autumn night. It wasn’t long before images began circulating on iReporting sites, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and traditional news outlets of the uncharacteristically large satellite over iconic landmarks and open spaces. The moon even posed with people from throughout the planet.
I’ve seen a similar momentum with the release of director Ridley Scott’s The Martian. The tale of NASA botanist Mark Watney’s trials, stranded on the Red Planet after a sand storm caused his crew mates to abort the mission, has been heralded as one of the most scientifically accurate portrayals of a Mars landing in cinema history. The science demonstrated in the movie is also starting the conversation among kids and candidates, adults and adolescents about a future real world trip to Mars.
The movie has no villain, except for the Martian environment. The thin Carbon Dioxide atmosphere, low air pressure and blistering cold antagonized Watney to the end. But when have humans ever backed down from a challenge without one day revisiting its possibilities — not because it is easy but because it is hard, as President John F. Kennedy once said.
I wasn’t around in the 1950s and 60s when the space race with the Soviet Union was tense and trendy, but I hope we have a new momentum building now — not driven of fear of an enemy’s advancing capabilities, but because sheer curiosity and the excitement of what’s out there can be so much fun and unite us as a planet.
Keep looking up.
Contact Mike Mendenhall at
515-674-3591 or
mmendenhall@jaspercountytribune.com