2008 Woodie Awards
Space exploration is never dull
Emily Iorg
Issue date: 1/23/06 Section: Forum
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When did the latest iPod offering become more interesting than space travel?
Space exploration is anything but stagnant. As a precious cargo of comet dust undergoes preliminary analysis in Houston and a NASA spaceship begins a long voyage past Pluto, life on Earth continues.
Both the exploration of Pluto and analysis of the comet dust will reward scientists with information about how the solar system formed.
Wind gusts and a power outage at the control center delayed the launch of a craft bound for Pluto twice. On the third try Jan. 19, NASA successfully launched New Horizons, a $700 million spacecraft, on a nine-year trip to Pluto and beyond.
The implications of this nine-year voyage are major: the discovery of new planets, new thoughts on outer space.
Somehow many people seem more blown away by current computer software capabilities than the thought of traveling 3.5 billion miles into space. But my excitement level only increases, because Pluto and its space neighborhood likely hold the answers to planetary origins.
New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft launched, can travel up to 36,000 miles per hour. It will shave five years off its trip by using Jupiter's gravity to launch further out in the solar system.
Lately I feel part of a minority still enthusiastic about exploring beyond Earth.
In elementary school I remember how students from several classes gathered in one room to watch a shuttle launch. Now a launch is only another news item in the nightly lineup.
Is the trick to make space trips sound cooler? Okay.
The craft's instruments are powered by 24 pounds of plutonium.
These seven devices will measure particles, solar wind, space dust, atmospheric composition, temperature and gas composition. Cameras will photograph the surfaces of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
Astronomer David Levy, whom I met on a stargazing trip to Bolivia, wrote an article in the Jan. 15 Parade magazine that conveyed his enthusiasm about Pluto. He said there has never before been as much interest in the "edge of the solar system."
Space exploration is anything but stagnant. As a precious cargo of comet dust undergoes preliminary analysis in Houston and a NASA spaceship begins a long voyage past Pluto, life on Earth continues.
Both the exploration of Pluto and analysis of the comet dust will reward scientists with information about how the solar system formed.
Wind gusts and a power outage at the control center delayed the launch of a craft bound for Pluto twice. On the third try Jan. 19, NASA successfully launched New Horizons, a $700 million spacecraft, on a nine-year trip to Pluto and beyond.
The implications of this nine-year voyage are major: the discovery of new planets, new thoughts on outer space.
Somehow many people seem more blown away by current computer software capabilities than the thought of traveling 3.5 billion miles into space. But my excitement level only increases, because Pluto and its space neighborhood likely hold the answers to planetary origins.
New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft launched, can travel up to 36,000 miles per hour. It will shave five years off its trip by using Jupiter's gravity to launch further out in the solar system.
Lately I feel part of a minority still enthusiastic about exploring beyond Earth.
In elementary school I remember how students from several classes gathered in one room to watch a shuttle launch. Now a launch is only another news item in the nightly lineup.
Is the trick to make space trips sound cooler? Okay.
The craft's instruments are powered by 24 pounds of plutonium.
These seven devices will measure particles, solar wind, space dust, atmospheric composition, temperature and gas composition. Cameras will photograph the surfaces of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
Astronomer David Levy, whom I met on a stargazing trip to Bolivia, wrote an article in the Jan. 15 Parade magazine that conveyed his enthusiasm about Pluto. He said there has never before been as much interest in the "edge of the solar system."
