?Bring an umbrella to Houston? I figured it would be unnecessary and left it out of my luggage. Lo and behold yesterday morning it began to rain and it seems to have continued off and on most of the day. That hardly matters when you’re in a huge high-rise hotel, but it’s a good thing it didn’t happen Wednesday night, when I walked all over downtown looking for restaurants. I favor inexpensive ethnic places with interesting menus but also love any place with a decent wine list and crusty bread baked in-house. I walk 3-5 miles each day and get seriously stressed out when I don’t get in the exercise, so I’m hoping the rain will be gone or at least sporadic enough today to let me get out a bit. Houston’s humidity, I must say, did slow down my pace in each journey I’ve taken so far.
No time for walking yesterday, though, as I spent all day in meetings re the 100 Year Starship organization and future planning. It was great fun to be with a small group including 100 Year Starship leader Mae Jemison, Jill Tarter and LeVar Burton talking about interstellar issues. Burton, Star Trek’s Geordie LaForge, is as persuasive and eloquent an interstellar advocate as I’ve ever encountered, a man who deeply believes in the kind of future the Federation represented in the series. He thinks we have the chance to evolve technology and human ethics in the direction the show portrayed. About Jill Tarter, what can I say other than that it was a pleasure to see her again and benefit from her numerous insights. We are clearly not far from the day, thanks to Kepler, that we find a true Earth analogue, an Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone around a Sun-like star.
Image: Claudio Maccone, Jill Tarter and myself at a 100 Year Starship Symposium party.
Ecuadoran student Juan Robalino (now studying in Vienna) re-connected after our conversations last year in Orlando, and was kind enough to bring me an Ecuadoran Montecristi hat as a souvenir. Then dinner last night with my buddy Al Jackson, who found yet another way to pick up the check — I may have to handcuff him next time to pay for his dinner. Al still lives in Houston following his years with NASA and the Apollo program. The beauty of Al is that there seems to be no science fiction novel — indeed, no science fiction short story — he hasn’t read. So we play a game of origins. Which science fiction writer came up with the first antimatter drive, and where was it published? (We’re still kicking that one around). How much of a hand did John Campbell have in shaping Frank Herbert’s Dune? (Maybe more than suspected). Who portrayed Einsteinian time dilation in science fiction for the first time? (Robert Wilson in ‘Out Around Rigel’). All of this kindles my love of old books and magazines and we revel in the glory days of Heinlein and Asimov.
Al told me that in the Apollo days, surprisingly enough, there were few SF readers among the scientists and engineers in Houston. Nowadays, SF readers are common at NASA centers and elsewhere. What happened? I have no idea, but maybe that earlier generation had focused largely on the science itself because the fiction seemed too implausible. But today, having seen the Moon landings and thirsty for more, several generations have come of age that cut their teeth on science fiction. When I was researching my Centauri Dreams book, scientist after scientist reminisced about growing up reading Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke. And I’ve mentioned more than a few times here that the book singled out more than any other by these scientists was Anderson’s Tau Zero. The current wave of so-called ‘hard’ science fiction may play a similar role in inciting younger students to follow up interests in astronomy, astronautics and aerospace.
Dinner also offered the chance to talk to the multi-talented Shen Ge, co-founder and president of a group called Scientific Preparatory Academy for Cosmic Explorers (SPACE). Rather than trying to explain the vision Shen has for bringing astronautics into education, I’ve asked him to put together an article on his concept for publication on Centauri Dreams. Both Shen and fellow dinner guest Doug Yazell write for the Houston branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, and I assume we’ll be seeing 100 Year Starship coverage in their publication. Our conversation over a good bottle of Bouchaine Pinot Noir was a superb finale to the day.
Earlier, at a symposium party, I had the chance to see Claudio Maccone, whose gravitational lens mission called FOCAL plays an interesting role in David Brin’s new novel Existence (yet one more reason to read this fine book). Claudio is one of the great gentlemen of interstellar studies, unfailingly courteous to a fault and willing to explain to a mathematics-challenged writer like me concepts as abstruse as KLT, the Karhunen–Loève Transform. I can’t say I fully understand Claudio’s work on KLT but at least I know what he’s trying to do with it, and can see why he thinks it could be an interesting SETI tool as well as a possible way to sort out tricky exoplanet signatures. The FOCAL mission, of course, is something I’ve written about here on many occasions, a chance to use the huge magnifications available at distances beyond 550 AU from the Sun.
I’ll try to get out some tweets about sessions today. Wasn’t able to do it yesterday.
Addendum: Yesterday I pointed to the wrong link for Kelvin Long’s new Institute for Interstellar Studies. This link should correct that.
Many thanks Paul for your updates!
I should say during Apollo days I ran into quite a few science fiction readers, but not many Space Cadets. I know they must have been around NASA, but in those days I knew few science fiction fans in the agency.
I think I related the story of finding out that Buzz Aldrin was an ardent reader of SF, when he was explaining 2001 A Space Odessey to a group after the premier in Houston in 1968.
He was then and still is a space cadet!
There were quite a few , I ran into, in the Apollo program, who had been influenced by von Braun et al. by way of the Colliers space series. More on that to come.
My suspicion is that the scientists who read “Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke” were babyboomers, who grew up on BOOK science fiction. The Apollo generation of scientists and engineers were probably 6-10 years older, and formed their reading habits before 1950, back when SF was essentially restricted to the pulps.
Didn’t somebody else about fifty years ago in Texas say something about doing something in space because it was hard? And we had only done a couple of suborbital manned missions at the time.
http://news.discovery.com/space/interstellar-travel-is-hard-dont-bother-120913.html
I keep looking for a “like” button for these posts.
Mae Jemison looks to the future of space travel
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Twenty years ago today, Mae Jemison, physician and NASA astronaut, became the first black woman to travel in space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Jemison has launched 100 Year Starship, an ambitious project to encourage interstellar travel through the exchange of creative ideas. The organization will hold a public symposium in Houston this week.
When Jemison was an undergraduate at Stanford University, her roommate was Linda Lorelle, who went on to become a KPRC-TV anchor. We asked Lorelle, moderator of PBS’ “Red, White and Blue,” to interview Jemison about her career and space travel.
Excerpts follow:
http://www.chron.com/life/article/Mae-Jemison-looks-to-the-future-of-space-travel-3857409.php
Wonderful commentary with personal narrative and insights, Paul. It’s always a pleasure to see you at all given your remoteness from Texas and vice versa, and the infrequency of these affairs. It’s especially great to see you at these functions. BUT…we never spent any time together these past few days to hash out our thoughts and observations on everything, and share a wine-filled meal together. What happened? Well, to be fair, we did get to spend the afternoon sitting next to each other at the 100YSS Science Advisory Council meeting last Thursday afternoon. I was very busy hanging out with the Icarus Krew, and I was tied up like a hog with all those program meetings and function, and technical paper sessions associated with my duties as the Time-Distance Solutions Track Chair. Did you see us Track Chairs report out this morning or the workshop coordinators report out on their functions before us? It was very good. Jill Tarter and Claudio were in the audience. The big shinding gala last night was pretty. Great food and entertainment. I sat with my old pal Al Holt (ISS Program Management Office, Johnson Space Center) and his girlfriend Ina. Donna Dulo and Allen Hale(?) were also at our table. I sat with Donna and Allen at the Friday night dinner even too. Donna is a member of Icarus and works at the Naval Post-Graduate School in computer sciences. Gawd, am I exhausted from all the early wakeups to late night functions and even later night Icarus “after parties”. Mae had us meet privately with her at 7 am this morning with no breakfast service to discuss problems between Icarus and 100YSS, and also the issue about FED quitting the partnership. The Plenary reporting function didn’t end until 11:30am this morning. I’m pooped. I got out and walked a dozen blocks around downtown late this afternoon.
Why Humanity Needs to Travel to Other Stars
by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor
Date: 15 September 2012 Time: 07:01 AM ET
HOUSTON — Launching a mission to another star could teach us not just about space, but about Earth as well, experts argued here today at the 100 Year Starship Symposium.
“I believe space exploration is a human imperative,” said Mae Jemison, the first female African American astronaut. “It didn’t begin in 1957 with Sputnik, it’s been a part of us” all along.
Jemison is heading the 100 Year Starship initiative, which aims to mount a mission to another star within 100 years. Toward that end, scientists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines gathered for a public symposium here from Sept. 13 to 16 to discuss the motivations, challenges and possible solutions for pursuing interstellar spaceflight.
Full article here:
http://www.space.com/17617-interstellar-spaceflight-100-year-starship.html
Eric Davis writes:
Hey, I realize that! You were as swamped as I was, but let’s plan that wine-filled meal next time I’m in Austin. We have plenty to talk about.