WEEKLY WHINE

Finding today

At the risk of being too repetitive, it's time to write another column about space. Those of you who know me are fully aware that space is pretty much the only thing that I significantly care about, and the rest of you would be able to guess that based upon the content of this site. In that case, maybe I should attempt to explain what it is that I like about space in the first place. I've always liked avoiding trends: I use Sonique rather than Winamp, I refurbish my room, I regularly update a seemingly worthless site. None of these are things that "normal" people do. Something else that "normal" people do is live on Earth. Sure, Earth has its merits, but I think that on the whole, it's more challenging, stimulating, rewarding, interesting to live elsewhere.

It is for these reasons that I belong to two organisations concerning the advancement of space. There is Caltech SEDS, which attempts to promote interest in space through such means as star parties, lectures, technical projects, and other activities. There is also the Caltech/JPL Mars Society, which wants to promote the exploration of Mars in particular, beginning with simple robots, then more complex robots, then real people. These are organisations with different methods but with similar goals. Ultimately, it comes down to the important fact that space exploration as a whole is easiest when the next target is Mars rather than, say, the Moon, which is a more difficult environment. Looking at the problem that way shows the potential overlap between the two groups.

But at Caltech, one starts at the bottom, the other at the top. The Mars Society wants to bring a feasible mission plan directly to NASA and reach out to people later. SEDS wants to visit normal people first as a gateway to reaching the upper levels of space's elite. Perhaps one is more effective than the other or more feasible than the other, but in any case, these are the differences.

Most people wind up choosing between the two because they haven't the time for both. I, however, do have the time for both because I participate in no other activities. Most people care about something other than space; I don't. You may think that I care about other things such as computers, but only as a means of exploring space. For instance, I keep claiming that I'm going to develop my own operating system that's so much better than anything ever seen. I don't know if that's ever going to be implemented [I can guess no], but you can see how useful it would be in space computers. It would be the first operating system designed for use in microgravity. [Note: That was a joke. It makes no difference what kind of gravitational field was intended for the operating system; the only relevance that the gravitational field has is that the computer is still capable of operating in that gravitational field.] I also like munbers. Munbers are seemingly applicable in quantum mechanics, which is applicable in finding out the early conditions of the Universe. Hence, munbers are related to space quite clearly. There are other instances, but I needn't elaborate further at this moment, I think.

Given that I care only about space, I want to act in the best interest of space. Namely, how does everything I do affect the feasability of a humans-to-Mars mission? How can I further the cause of astronomic research in my everyday life? This puts me in a unique position, since I am able to observe two organisations and see what is the best cause. It should be clear that there should be some kind of partnership between SEDS and the Mars Society. The mission of the Mars Society is a special case of the mission of SEDS, with the exception that SEDS is apolitical and the Mars Society is not. Aside from this, the two can come together in a variety of circumstances. For instance, anyone at all who speaks about Mars is in the overlap range. Telescope nights on campus, such as when Mars was at opposition, are in that category. The list can continue.

It is for these reasons that I propose some additional events held as a combined effort between the Mars Society and SEDS. I know not what they might be, but they would certainly be an important step on the way to making space a useful place for everyone.