COSMIC SAILING
PART II
"HUBBLE MEANS TRUBBLE"
12th edition, december 2016
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1.
Dear Reader, I hope all is well, and you are in your last efforts to either prepare for your New Year’s Eve festivities, or escaping from it. And may be you had some time to reflect on some of the more immediate problems of the world, which I do not want to list here because I am restricted with space. But do not worry ! It will all be ok ! Trust me. Change is the footprint of Life, and whilst Life is limited in time on an individual basis , evolution ensures that Life in general continues and thrives in one way or the other whilst adapting to the change. Makes sense ? 3. Well the answer is : “ Make voyages! Attempt them….there’s nothing else” (by Tennessee Williams). And who doesn’t love to travel, right? Even Britney Spears figured it out although rather restricting herself geographically: “ The cool thing about being famous is travelling. I have always wanted to travel across seas, like to Canada and stuff”. Ok, sorry, let’s continue. So if our planet, as Carl Sagan once said, "is the shore of the ocean called universe, and our knowledge about this ocean is just as big as if we would have dipped our toe into it", then the conclusion is simple : We have to travel to these distant and unknown shores out there . And this dear reader, is of course no news. But, and now I come to the end of my long bickering with all these twists and turns, but…..how do we get there, that is the question ! |
2.
OK, you over-witted city-dwellers and disco-goers, I know I have strained your brains already, so here is more mischief : Whilst we have a good understanding about mankind’s evolution, thanks to Darwin and so uniquely visualised by Sir David Attenborough, what about the evolution of the universe ? Well , here the word “ Science” comes into my mind, defined in this context as “ building and organising knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe”. Wow, are you still with me ? Great, next : Why should we care, I mean why should we bother if we even can’t control the developments on our planet ? Well, the answer is simple: The engine of Mankind is the drive to explore beyond its contemporary knowledge. So how do we get more “scientia” (lat.) i.e. knowledge about the Universe ? 4.
And here is my unique answer, based on years of experience and knowledge : We have to go sailing ! What else ! (Quotation from good old George Clooney…in the advert, I mean ) |
ENJOY !
The discussion about space travel is not new,
there are no simple solutions - or so it seems.
However I will attempt to dissolve some of the challenges into a logic
that will bring me close to the Nobel Prize league of scientists and futurists.
Trust me.
there are no simple solutions - or so it seems.
However I will attempt to dissolve some of the challenges into a logic
that will bring me close to the Nobel Prize league of scientists and futurists.
Trust me.
THE "TRUBBLE" IS THE "HUBBLE" !
Yes, you heard me right, and I mean it.
And by the way : I know my spelling .
Yes, you heard me right, and I mean it.
And by the way : I know my spelling .
Not that Edwin Hubble ( 1889 - 1953 ) was the first one who used the largest telescope of his days in the 1920s to discover galaxies far and beyond.
Already Galileo had done that in 1610, but both times were different compared to today.
Now we have a generation of Scientists who all have grown up with The Queen’s song :
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“I want it all, I want it now”.
To a certain extent I even sympathise, seeing what the Hubble observatory,placed into space in 1990, is sending back as the most beautiful and breath- taking images from complex galaxies far beyond that mankind had never seen before. So their natural instinct is a reflection of what I said before. They want to go there, and they want to go there now ! (best if you play both videos at the same time) |
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What a mistake, what a depletion of resources , what a waste of time.
I can tell , they have no clue about sailing.
Indeed they seem to have no knowledge about the Phoenicians.
Have I caught your attention ? I bet I have.
Here is how I see the story developing .
I can tell , they have no clue about sailing.
Indeed they seem to have no knowledge about the Phoenicians.
Have I caught your attention ? I bet I have.
Here is how I see the story developing .
There are a number of issues that hamper space travel a great deal,
however if Carl Sagan is right about the toe, ie the little knowledge we have, then
we are comparably speaking on the same level as the Phoenicians were !
When they first started attempting to sail the unknown Mediterranean :
They had no compass,
no charts or GPS ( Global Positioning System ),
they knew little about prevailing winds in further distant regions,
they had a lack of food and water over longer distances ,
they had no knowledge about possible illnesses like Skorbut ( lack of vitamines ) and others,
they had no knowledge of how and when to return to their basis,
they had no SAR ( Search and Rescue ) services in case something went wrong,
no phone they could call for help,
and yet…..they managed.
As a conclusion of my highly exciting argumentations I would like to draw your attention to the following :
They had no compass,
no charts or GPS ( Global Positioning System ),
they knew little about prevailing winds in further distant regions,
they had a lack of food and water over longer distances ,
they had no knowledge about possible illnesses like Skorbut ( lack of vitamines ) and others,
they had no knowledge of how and when to return to their basis,
they had no SAR ( Search and Rescue ) services in case something went wrong,
no phone they could call for help,
and yet…..they managed.
As a conclusion of my highly exciting argumentations I would like to draw your attention to the following :
1.
They achieved their expansion and exploration with the existing technology and know-how of their time ! |
2.
They developed their knowledge and successive expansion over the time span of 1200 years and probably more ! |
In fact, even another 1200 years later , some of the above issues were still not resolved, when Christopher Columbus started his epic voyages.
So what does this all have to do with future space travel ?
The universe is immense.
The Hubble project has given us a first real insight about different star systems and galaxies. And there are literally billions and billions of them out there.
Let me put things into perspective, so you realise quickly the dimensions we are talking about.
We can, with current technology, reach our MOON in 3 days.
Great ! Great ?
Well, if we use the same technology and take a space shuttle ( as an example ) to
fly to Alpha Centauri,
the nearest star system to our sun, which is roughly 25 trillion miles away,
it would take 165,000 years
to get there !
Excuse me ?
Any more questions ?
So what does this all have to do with the Phoenicians ?
Well, here is the simple answer :
We can learn from them!
Just follow my undiluted knowledge on the subject in the next
THE MUNCH REPORT !
So what does this all have to do with future space travel ?
The universe is immense.
The Hubble project has given us a first real insight about different star systems and galaxies. And there are literally billions and billions of them out there.
Let me put things into perspective, so you realise quickly the dimensions we are talking about.
We can, with current technology, reach our MOON in 3 days.
Great ! Great ?
Well, if we use the same technology and take a space shuttle ( as an example ) to
fly to Alpha Centauri,
the nearest star system to our sun, which is roughly 25 trillion miles away,
it would take 165,000 years
to get there !
Excuse me ?
Any more questions ?
So what does this all have to do with the Phoenicians ?
Well, here is the simple answer :
We can learn from them!
Just follow my undiluted knowledge on the subject in the next
THE MUNCH REPORT !