The Management Mythbuster

Space Oddity? No just bad luck

"Ground control to Major Tom,
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me Major Tom?"

A great song that launched the career of David Bowie in 1969 although it didn't reach number 1 in the UK until 1975 - so it didn't exactly rocket up the charts! I was listening to the song the other day and it occurred to me that Bowie's words may have been oddly prophetic, particularly for this particular week in the history of space exploration.  The period from 27th January through the 1st February undoubtedly qualifies as the darkest six days in the history of space exploration. Consider the facts: If I am selected for the upcoming Mars program - not likely but who knows I am thirty years younger than John Glenn was when he went up in the shuttle back in 1998 - I will refuse to go anywhere between January 27th and February 1st.

1.  27th January 1967:  A flash cockpit fire on board Apollo 1 during testing takes the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee;

2. 28th January 1986:  Space shuttle Challenger explodes killing all seven astronauts including Akron native Judith Resnik;

3. 1st February 2003: Space shuttle Colombia burns up on re-entry killing another seven astronauts.

Coincidence?  Maybe, but if I were NASA I would not take any chances by scheduling future missions in this Bermuda Triangle on the calendar.

Forget global - now it must be galactic

So NASA plans to have a fully operational moon base by 2024.  Costs of designing the new vehicle to transport four astronauts to the lunar surface are estimated at over $100 billion which probably means it will be close to a trillion by the time they are done. 

Of course giving us all plenty of advance notice will allow McDonald's to perfect the SpaceMac and Starbucks to introduce the Lunar Latte while Domino's and Pizza Hut can engage in a heated battle for the pizza delivery franchise.  Pizza Hut has the early lead as its logo is already on the side of Russian spaceship!  CNN and Fox are already working on the selection of their lunar correspondents - I vote for Geraldo. Researchers will furiously search for solutions to such major issues as how to flush a toilet in zero-G, provide television service on the "dark side", establish the first lunar freeway and set up a fully functional maternity unit to ensure safe delivery of the first lunar citizens.  Tougher will be discussions as to the nationality of such citizens and the exact composition of the LDF or lunar defense force.

The opening up of the moon for business should allow mankind to easily decimate yet another landscape although to be fair there is less to decimate and it will be a good dry run for the subsequent rape of Mars.  It should be an exciting two decades or so...

Life, the universe and everything

A contemplative Thanksgiving for our family, however I did find two fascinating items during my daily wander through the BBC website.

First the Mexicans have built the worlds largest radio telescope on top of a 15,000 high mountain, must be the only place where you can get above Mexico City's smog!  This new wonder will be able to pick up radio waves that have been bouncing around the cosmos for up to 13 billion years. I can just imagine the look on the scientists faces as they listen to the following transmission picked up by the new telescope, "We interrupt this broadcast for an urgent traffic and weather update.  Today's evening commute will be severely disrupted by a major reconfiguration of the solar system.  Residents of the moon will find their journey lengthened by about 250,000 miles.  In weather, there will considerable changeability over the next few million years with temperatures ranging from -120 to over 1,000 degrees. Please check the local forecasts before venturing out.  In sports the Browns lost."

The second item that blew me away were pictures of animals in the womb, a baby elephant, dolphin and dog all in glorious colour.  Look for yourself by clicking here. Cool aren't they...