OT: Pilots in Space

Just to tweak anyone who thinks pilots/astronauts have any useful role
in space science or space exploration, or that the Bush administration's
plans for sending man back to the moon or on to Mars make any sense.

[Robert Park is a national treasure, and the opinions below represent
the overwhelming opinion of the U.S. scientific community.]

[And none of this is to criticize any bold private or commercial
entrepreneurs who want to invest their own non-taxpayers' funds
in exploring the possibilities of human space flight.]


WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 11 Aug 06 Washington, DC

1. JAMES VAN ALLEN: THE FIRST AMERICAN SPACE HERO, DEAD AT 91.
Almost nothing was known about conditions beyond the ionosphere
when the US launched Explorer I on 31 Jan 58. The Cold War was
at its peak, and the Soviets seemed to own space. Sputnik I,
launched 4 Oct 57, carried no instruments. Sputnik II, a month
later, could only send back Geiger counter readings taken when it
was in sight of the ground station. In June, however, at a
conference in the USSR, James Van Allen, a physics professor at
the University of Iowa, announced that Explorer I had discovered
the first of the two "Van Allen radiation belts." Soviet space
scientists were crushed; the "space age" was not a year old and
already the U.S. had taken the lead in science. Two years ago I
visited Prof Van Allen in his office at the U. of Iowa. At 89 he
was down to a 7-day work week. He showed me an op-ed he was
sending to the NY Times in which he described human space flight
as "obsolete" http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN04/wn072304.html .
I don't believe they used it. Van Allen said using people to
explore space is "a terribly old fashioned idea."
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Pilots in Space
    ... when the US launched Explorer I on 31 Jan 58. ... Sputnik II, a month ... Soviet space ... visited Prof Van Allen in his office at the U. of Iowa. ...
    (rec.aviation.piloting)
  • Re: wandering around Washington
    ... the Van Allen hall exhibit at The University of Iowa (Iowa ... IA) had one of the Explorer 1 models. ... Injun 1 and Hawkeye 1) was done in the basement of Van Allen Hall. ... photo of Jim Van Allen at the NASM with one of the models, ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Of Explorer I and JPL
    ... Laboratory's role in the response to Sputnik (the news angle being the ... upcoming 50th anniversary of Explorer I): ...
    (sci.space.history)