Monday, February 6, 2017

NASA is on Line One...


INGRID THOFT: Pretend it’s 2011, and you get a phone call from NASA.  They’re staffing the last flight of the space shuttle, and amazingly enough, there’s a seat for you if you want it!  Do you accept and get ready to don those adult diapers under your flight suit?  Or do you hang up the phone, relieved that your feet will remain firmly planted on terra firm?  

This is a question my husband and I have contemplated at various times, and his response is always swift and unequivocal:  Yes!  Sign me up!  In the past, my inclination has been to stay at home and eagerly await his return, but recently, I’ve had a change of heart.  Perhaps it’s just age or maybe it’s the state of the world, but that opportunity seems too good to miss.  I’m not suggesting I would sign up for the one-way trip to Mars, but an opportunity to gain a whole new perspective on Planet Earth is strangely appealing.

What about you, Reds?  Prepare for liftoff or grab a good book and your afghan for some hygge?


LUCY BURDETTE: Good lord, they have to wear diapers? Can you hear the pounding of footsteps? That's me, running away from this "opportunity" as quickly as I can. My husband would probably be itching to go too, Ingrid, and then there would be a family squabble about the risk. And I'd have to say something along the lines of "I'm going to give all your money away to cat charities if you croak on this trip, you know that, right?"

In other words, anyone is welcome to my seat on the flight!

HALLIE EPHRON: Make that a twofer. I'll sit this one out with Lucy, thank you very much. In fact, I can pass on most of what passes for "adventure" travel. I would like to see the Northern Lights, but from terra firma. But these days I'm savoring the smaller pleasures of everyday life. A child's laughter. Corny, I know. But I don't need to be wowed.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ha. I actually had to face this. In 19...80 something? NASA asked for applications for the first journalist in space. I thought: yes, indeedy! Sign me right up. I sent off for that application, and filled in out in a frenzy of excitement (and ambition). The last element of the app was to write a 500 word essay on why one wanted to be the first journalist in space. Well, I thought, okay, this might be a valuable thing---it'll make me really think about the answer. As I contemplated the lift off, the trip, the vast hideous darkness of infinite space.....ahhhhh. I decided: NOT A CHANCE. I still have that unsent application somewhere.  (Not to be a downer--but I also covered the Christa McAuliffe story.)  Ingrid, your brain is telling you something--but it is interesting how many astronauts come home with an intensely changed perspective. 


Jenn: SIGN ME UP! I would absolutely do it. Not in 2011, however, it would have to be 2021 for me so the last hooligan has launched himself off to college. I mean zero gravity -- bring it on! Okay, so that was my answer before I did some research on facts about living in space (librarian). Here's a fascinating link that made me hesitate just a smidgeon: 10 Fascinating Facts About Living in Space. But even with the threat of bad hair days, the inability to shower, and chicken legs, yep, I still think I'd go. Maybe.

LUCY: I cannot tell you how terrible that article makes space travel look!! I would find it hard to even know where to start LOL, but having had Ménière's symptoms, the nausea is a pretty good place. Jenn and Ingrid will have to go on their own I'm afraid…or maybe Rhys?

RHYS BOWEN: Not me! Not even when I was younger and super fit. I have always hated roller coasters and training on that zero gravity machine and in a zero gravity flight would be my worst nightmare. I even freaked out on the Disney Star Wars ride! And John is super claustrophobic so there is no way you would get him in a small capsule. I just saw Hidden Figures (the best film I've seen in ages) and envied those math whizzes who could calculate the trajectories. But I'll stay firmly on the ground and gaze in awe up at the stars!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Add me to the NO column. NO NO NO. Like Lucy, I have Meniere's Syndrome, and anything that is even remotely likely to make me dizzy I avoid at all costs. Add the toilet issues, the body atrophy, the damage to the brain (fascinating article!), and ACK. Still, it's so interesting, and I'm really glad there are people who are willing to do it. I would love to see the stars and the earth from space. How could that not change your perspective on our little isolated planet?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Sign me up for the 2030 Mission to Mars! Sure, I'll be 69, but they'll need a little elder wisdom to help out all the ridiculously healthy youngsters, right?

I've always loved the idea of space flight, and I'd go in a second. If I had had a shred of mathematical or engineering talent, I could see myself having gone into something in the aerospace industry. Unfortunately, my gifts are limited to writing, mothering, singing and hygge, and sadly, those talents don't seem to be in high demand for NASA shuttle flights.

Colonization, on the other hand... think about it - what could be better, more exciting, than leaving the cradle of humanity and striking out into the void? Mars will need singers and writers as well as mechanics and engineers. And after all, John Glenn was 77 on his last space flight.


What about you, readers?  Any interest in gazing back at our beautiful planet from deep space?



35 comments:

  1. Oh, please . . . sign me up.
    Unfortunately, I don’t have any of those technical/scientific skills NASA looks for in their astronauts, but if enthusiasm and eagerness to go count for anything . . . .

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  2. I would have signed up in a heartbeat when I was a kid. Heck, there's still a part of me that thinks it would be a lot of fun now, and a once in a lifetime experience. However, the part of me that knows what a big chicken I really am knows it wouldn't be a good idea in reality.

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  3. I think enthusiasm counts for a lot, Joan!

    Since it will never happen, Mark, you can pretend you aren't a big chicken!

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  4. Ha, no way! I'm not very adventurous and prefer looking at the stars from my deck. Maybe I've seen too many Alien movies...

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  5. It really is the most chilling idea… It is giving up everything we rely on, and trusting in physics and technology and luck. I read somewhere that having the space shuttle be successful is technically as difficult as having all of utilities in New York City working perfectly at the same time.

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  6. Sonia, for me it's Star Trek, and still I'll happily sit this one out...

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  7. Have you see some of the results of the study they're doing on the identical twins, Scott and Mark Kelly? The one who went into space has had many physical changes, some positive, some not. I can't decide if his lengthened chromosomes (while his brother's shortened) is a good thing or a bad thing. But the effects of zero gravity meant he is now two inches taller than his twin. It will be interesting to see how long that lasts. I can see my husband, who has shrunk nearly four inches, wanting to go into space, for that reason alone.

    Hank, you and me both! There must have been several of those competitions around the same time. The woman principal at our kids' elementary school was in the final five of the same teacher competition that chose Christa McAuliffe, but when she found out she was pregnant she was disqualified and had to drop out. Can you imagine that lifelong feeling?

    On the other hand, what a rare privilege. When John Glenn got his first look at the earth from space in the movie Hidden Figures I burst into tears. And am still verklempt, just thinking of that monumental moment in human history.

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  8. No. No. No. You lose perspective in outer space, because you are in the middle of everywhere. You are on earth as well, but at least here you are grounded, unless you start thinking about it too much. Out there? You can't avoid it. 🙆🏼

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  9. I'm not leaving this planet; I'll be happy to see photos taken by those who do go into space! My "gift" is to cheer them on!(And I'm not wearing adult diapers until absolutely necessary!)

    Hidden Figures was a great movie. I'm now reading the book. Those women are my heroes!

    Deb Romano

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  10. Will I cry at HIdden Figures?

    And I always think about the astronauts' wives. How stressful--to put it mildly--could anything be? ANd they are WATCHING.

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  11. There was a time I'd have gone in a heartbeat - even with all those things in the article. But now my balance is so screwy that I don't think I could. But I love pictures from space. So beautiful. The closest I got to that perspective was hovering 102 feet below the surface of the water in St. Croix. Had I started swimming off to my right, the next land mass I would have encountered was Africa. Below me, it was another 100 or so feet to the next continental shelf. Boy, I felt small.

    I really need to see "Hidden Figures."

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  12. That's a whole lot of nope. If I was supposed to orbit earth, I'd have wings.

    Hank, bring tissues.

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  13. Karen - the height thing is fascinating. I can imagine a future where people who can afford to go for the zero gravity cure - an orbital spa where you can stay long enough to get the benefits of microgravity, and then return to earth.

    Completely off subject, but we were discussing staging houses on Saturday: it evidently works, because my friend got a full price offer the very next day!

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  14. Nope. No way. Absolutely not. Domestic flights can trigger my claustrophobia, I cannot even imagine a space capsule.

    David Bowie's Space Oddity is playing inside my head as I write this(and probably will be an earworm all day, thanks, Ingrid):Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong . . . Can you hear me, Major Tom?

    Eeeek!

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  15. That's a big ol' bowl of nope. Nope, no way, uh-uh. My hubby, however, would go in a heartbeat, and I wouldn't even try to dissuade him because it was always one of his dreams. (This would be the same hubby who volunteered to go off to Iraq during the 1990s and blow up chemical weapons facilities with the UN--more of an adrenaline junkie than I've ever been.)

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  16. I will go with Julia, but I'm taking a blankie and my Kindle. Maybe if I run out of stuff to read, Julie could tell me stories. As for the adult diapers? Pftt. I'll probably be in those by then anyway.

    Adding this to my bucket list, which includes Antarctica and the Great Wall of China.

    "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."

    Edgar Allan Poe

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  17. Hidden Figures is the best movie I've seen in ages! I'd make every schoolchild see that movie and see what those women had to put up with and what they achieved against incredible odds

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  18. Rhys, finished IN FARLEIGH FIELD last night. What a TGR!*

    *Thumping good read

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  19. Hank, my husband cried more than I did, but yes, parts of it are wrenching, and parts you'll cry happy tears. I'm with Rhys, one of the best movies I've ever seen, and my husband said the same.

    I took all three of my daughters to see Mona Lisa Smiles, which ends with a lot of historic photos. But it doesn't begin to address some of the deeper issues of the day, and doesn't even mention women of color. Both those movies shed a lot of light on our shared history.

    Congratulations to your friend, Julia!

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  20. Hank, the tears are mostly good ones The movie is both eye-opening and heartwarming. And I'm enjoying the book, which I bought for my Kindle the minute I got home from the movie.

    Deb Romano

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  21. Julia, congrats to your friend!

    We seem to be about even on the chickens and adventurers. They made planet to planet look a little more comfortable in The Martian--another really good movie.

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  22. Karen - the height thing is a point in the yes column for me. I'm already 6 feet tall if I come back two inches taller I'll catch up to my hooligans, who've taken to calling me "Short Stack". Worth it for that alone! LOL.

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  23. Oh heck yes! I'd go. As long as I don't have to be responsible for anything. And please, don't let there be motion sickness. I don't want to duplicate Barfin' Jake Garn's mission.

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  24. After seeing The Martian, I am all about space travel -- sign me up!

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  25. Celia, seeing the Martian makes you want to go?… ahh

    Julia! Congratulations! Another new career!

    I am off to give a speech now with a significant amount of make up trying to cover my black eye:-) let's see how well this works… Space travel might be more possible than this ...

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  26. No thank you, please. My best adventure is my seven-year-old granddaughter, and she is an amazing one. Now, on the other hand, she would be the first to sign up. Hahaha!

    Julia, way to go on the house staging success. Hank, you could try a patch and the pirate look.

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  27. NO! There's still so much that I haven't seen here on our beautiful home planet.

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  28. Debs, All planet-to-planet travel is more comfortable with Matt Damon involved! Or George Clooney or Matthew McConaughey...

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  29. When I was about three years old, a family friend and her husband took me to the planetarium. I started crying inside because I thought we were in a spaceship about to leave Earth! And it was puzzling when it was daytime upon arrival. When we left the planetarium, it was nighttime. I stopped crying when I saw that we arrived home!

    The logic of a three year old!

    Though I could see myself visiting the North Pole, the South Pole or Antarctica, I cannot see myself getting on a spaceship and leaving Earth.

    Great comments!

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  30. Julia,

    Congratulations to your friend's house selling with staging!

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  31. Karen in Ohio,

    Where did you read about the twins, Scott and Mark Kelly? Sounds interesting!

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  32. Bib-li-o-phile, here's the NASA site about it: https://www.nasa.gov/twins-study

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  33. In aqua-aerobics class, where the water allows members to jump about like children, we've thought about senior residences on the moon, where the lower gravity would ease movement and the view would be interesting.

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