Hadfield’s In Space

There are many shades of geekdom. I live up to a number of them. One particular interest I’ve kept fairly quiet though is that I’ve always been a ‘Space Geek’. I’ve kept it hidden as best I can over the years but every now and then something happens that brings out this inner geek. Now this isn’t a Star Wars thing. It’s not some sci-fi movie or TV series that fuels this desire to go to space. A little wrinkly green Jedi living in a swamp doesn’t inspire me to visit new planets and neither do legions of Stormtroopers in plastic body armour. What does inspire me are the real people that put themselves in tin cans and defy physics and have been doing so for sixty years.

I won’t lie I am a little disappointed that we got to the Moon forty years ago and have struggled to get any further since but then there wasn’t a lot on the moon and the next realistic object of interest is Mars which is a six month trip as opposed to the three day lunar jaunt. At the moment Mars is in the too hard bracket but it could happen with the right brand of lunatic ready to go one way. I don’t think I’m necessarily that lunatic but there are plenty out there. Although it has seemed slow there is no doubting that if one looks at the nodes of progress humans have made in space it really is great progress.

The Apollo moon landings of the late sixties and early seventies were perhaps slightly ahead of their time. They were sped up by the cold war with the Soviets and sometimes there has to be that incentive, such as bragging rights, in order to make that progression. A decade later and the shuttle era began. This was the era of reusable spacecraft and the ability to launch satellites, telescopes and later build a fully functioning space laboratory. Fifteen years after the shuttle era began the first modules were connected to create the ISS (International Space Station). This was a big deal to your typical space geek but not so much to your ‘average joe’. Fifteen years on and the space station has grown to the size of a rugby field. It has 837 cubic metres of living space and is arguably the single most expensive man-made object. On a clear evening, at just the right time, it can be seen tracking the sky in about two to three minutes and can be as clearly visible as Venus ( one of the the brightest things in the night sky). I once saw ISS at dusk in Wexford and nearly lost the run of myself such was my excitement. When these plot points are laid it’s clear there has been plenty of progress but that didn’t stop the ‘average joe’ from forgetting about space….until Hadfield came along.

Ned Flander’s in Space?

Chris Hadfield is no space virgin. He was the first Canadian to walk in space and before his latest expedition at the ISS he had flown two shuttle missions. He has a flying record that would turn ‘Maverick’ green with envy and a moustache that would turn Ned Flanders…well yellow, with envy. But it is this latest expedition that he has begun to restore space exploration to those early levels of interest and he has done this with – Social Networks. With You Tube, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook Hadfield has been able to inspire a new generation people like no astronaut before. Those average joe’s are now following the commander through social networks. It may well create a new generation of space geeks and even some lunatics willing to go and live on mars. Before he left the ISS, Commander Hadfield had time to produce THIS rendition of Bowie’s Space Oddity. To Commander Hadfield – Thanks for making space cool again!

Here’s FOTC with the best Bowie tribute ever.