It was a beautiful launch this morning for the Ares 1-X rocket, a unmanned prototype for the next-generation Constellation spacecraft that are intended to replace NASA’s aging space shuttle:
It looks to me like the ship wobbles a little bit right after ignition, when it’s balancing on the thrust column but hasn’t actually started lifting yet, and I had a nervous moment when I wondered if it was going to spiral over and blow up like some of the spectacular accidents from the very early days of spaceflight (many of which are shown in the movie The Right Stuff, if you’ll remember). But I haven’t seen anyone commenting on that motion, so perhaps it’s normal for this design. Or maybe I’m not seeing what I think I am.
The Ares is really kind of strange-looking, in my opinion, oddly proportioned with an anorexic body — which is actually a derivative version of the solid rocket boosters you see on either side of the shuttles during their launches — beneath a bulky payload section way up high. It looks top-heavy, although I would guess the weight of the propellant balances it out. Strange or not, though, this is what the future of American manned spaceflight is going to look like. Assuming there is one, of course. Right now, that’s somewhat questionable, since the shuttle is slated to stop flying next year, the International Space Station may very well be abandoned after its funding runs out in 2015, and the Constellation ships — the Ares booster combined with a manned Orion capsule — likely won’t be ready to safely fly humans until sometime after that. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of talk in space circles about sending people back to the Moon or on to Mars, but frankly I don’t see that there’s much public or political interest in doing either, and some experts are now questioning whether the Ares rockets are even the right hardware to meet those goals. So we’re essentially developing a whole new spacecraft system with no clear idea of where we’re going to send it or what we’re going to do with it.
That’s not smart. Especially these days, when everyone is so concerned with return on investment instead of merely wanting to do great things for the sake of doing great things. But still, no matter what the future holds, I have to admit that I got a genuine thrill this morning as I stood in the coffee shop, watching on the flatscreen over the counter as a whole new type of bird took flight over Cape Canaveral. It reminded me of those early mornings when I was a boy, getting up before dawn to watch the first few shuttle launches with my dad.
I concur with your last statement, Jas. There is a “Undiscovered Country” feel to this particular rocket test. I also agree with NASA really not having anything set in stone as to what it’s going to be used for. Obama may scrap any future attempts to the moon and while Mars is a lofty goal, I think there’s plenty to do nearer by still. In all honesty though, I’m not sure NASA really has had any concrete goals for a number of years now. Seems to be the same thing over and over and over. Oh, I forget, we have an International Space Station… wow.
I don’t think NASA hasn’t had any real goals since the Apollo program was defunded by Nixon in the early 70s. As much as I love the shuttles — and I really do; I think they’re beautiful, amazing machines — it was a mistake to concentrate so much time and wealth on them, to the exclusion of other, loftier projects.
The ISS is an impressive achievement in an engineering sense — hey, it’s pretty damn big, and we figured out how to assemble something like that in zero-g while wearing bulky spacesuits — and also in a political sense, because we successfully worked with a dozen or so other countrie to make it happen. But like the space shuttle and the Constellation, its actual purpose is unclear. When I say we ought to be doing great things, I mean more than simply building big, difficult stuff — we ought to be building big, difficult stuff with some purpose in mind. Think of the great engineering projects of the 20th century: the Golden Gate, Hoover Dam, and, yes, the Apollo project.
If I’d been in charge of things, every manned space activity for the last 30 years would’ve been directed to making slow but steady progress outward: build a small space station first, then scale it up. Design it from the beginning to serve as a waystation to points elsewhere, a spaceport. Go back to the Moon in larger ships with larger crews. Stay there longer, doing more elaborate science. Eventually create a small outpost there, serviced weekly by a ship from that space station. Then scale up to several outposts and one larger settlement. Essentially all the things NASA already had in mind before its priorities and funding got changed following the success of Apollo 11.
I still believe human beings are going to explore and eventually settle the rest of the solar system. But more and more I’m thinking it’s going to be the Chinese or the Indians who do it, while we Americans sit at home in the cold blue glare of our cellphones and iPod screens.
“in the cold blue glare of our cellphones and iPod screens.”
ironically enough, built by the Chinese…
Ha! Yes, good point. And rather a disturbing one, too…