Monday, August 6, 2012

Nerdgasm


I watched NASA TV last night, as the Mars rover "Curiosity" approached the planet and touched down. It was pretty amazing.

Eight and a half months, covering 350 million miles, executing an enormously complex and ingenious landing process right on time and exactly on target -- it approaches impossible. And yet, there it was. With pictures. The men and women at JPL went nuts. How could they not.

The value of such missions can be argued. But no matter what you think of the effort and its expense, it's impossible not to be impressed with the technology, the engineering, the genius of what goes into it all.

And -- far be it from me to point it out or to take an opportunity to state the obvious -- unless you believe the whole thing was faked, you must accept that science works. And, therefore, you cannot deny anthropogenic climate change or evolution. You can't. I've said it before: people who deny such things must not fly in planes, use computers, take antibiotics. Because that would be, you know, inconsistent. And no teabagger would want to be that, would they?

I apologize. I've taken an amazing moment and poisoned it. It was nothing short of incredible, and I loved every minute of it.


2 comments:

  1. Planes and Computers Evolved??
    Umm, OK, yeah I understand they go from 707-727-737-etc etc but it doesn't take billions of years and it's definately not "Natural"...
    And I'm a Space-Nut, faking all manner of illnesses in order to stay home and watch Apollo 14(in black & white:( from home.
    Coincidentally it must have been the day they taught the difference between "Your" and "You're"...
    And ExxxxxxxxxCuuuuuuuuzzzzzzeee me, if I'm a little Skeptical that "Science"
    that BTW, even with Electron Microscopes, only determined the correct Human Chromosome #(I know, Painless, Eww-Gene, take your cheap Trig Palin shot)
    in the 1950's, you know, when you learned that everyone had 48 Chromosomes, cause that's what the right answer on the MCAT was back then...
    Where was I, oh yeah, Chromosomes, and if Science can't get THAT right, maybe they don't know how come its gotten 0.5 degrees warmer in the last century...

    Frank "Anthropgenic THIS" Drackman

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  2. Citizen geek that I am, I was enthralled by this mission in recent days. Heard on NPR that "Curiosity" had made a successful landing and fist-pumped myself, in my car! Back home, I googled media responses, news accounts, etc, and just thrilled over and over the graphic representation of the landing! The kid in me who still remembers Apollo 11 and Mission Control could not be more excited! Even called my kids, early 20's, to share my enthusiasm and explain the possibilities, as neither of them were in on the event (!). I hope they have since checked this out.

    I bounce in and out of MSNBC and one of the stories coming up on someone's show was about the denial of science, and that, among other things humans lived with dinosaurs. Missed the segment but I wonder, do some folks think the Flintstones was animated reality TV? That could explain a lot about our current nut crop.

    Just had to ^5 you, Dr Scwab, for enjoying this near impossible engineering feat and realizing the possibilities of the mission. And for just getting the thrill I felt!!

    bl

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