This morning I watched the splashdown of the Artemis One spacecraft. I had a link to the live feed in my morning news from the Washington Post. It was most inspiring. And yet, I still felt an emotional sadness of the event. As the coverage continued from when I connected to the link, the news person was saying how there was some number of minutes until the spacecraft was to enter the Earth's atmosphere. It would be traveling at over 25,000 mph when it started to descend.
In an attempt to put that into some kind of perspective. Think of it like this. When you're outside in the winter and you want to warm up your hands. One way of doing this is by briskly rubbing your hands together. The friction of your palms rubbing past each other creates a small amount of heat. Now even if you might be doing this really, really fast. You are probably now moving your two hands any faster than five or ten mph relative to each other. So the amount of heat you are generating at that speed is enough to slightly warm your hands.
It is the heat of that friction that I want to focus on here. The heat generated at five to ten mph compared to the heat that is generated at 25,000 mph. The amount of heat generated is probably comparable to that at the surface of the sun. And yet, some very, very smart people have figured out a way to address this problem and protect the spacecraft. The friction of the spacecraft hitting the atmosphere slows down the forward velocity of the craft. The by-product of that friction is the amount of heat generated. I think that is just staggering that we have figured out a way to manage that problem.
Then, a bit longer into the coverage of the splashdown, the news person announces that the spacecraft has passed through the "blackout" phase of re-entry and radio contact with the spacecraft has resumed. A few moments later, the news person informs that the drone chutes have opened and are slowing the spacecraft's speed of descent. He said the velocity of the spacecraft was now traveling at ONLY 259 mph.
Now, before I continue, think back to your days in high school. Back to seeing those videos where you would see the crash tests of vehicles being done at 40 mph or 50 mph. Remember seeing the dummies in the car flinging forward on impact? Now think about how that would feel going from 150 mph to 0 in about 1 second. That's the kind of shock on the body that occurs during an opening of a parachute. It's very survivable, but it's something you will never, never forget. I know this personally. Because I felt that when I did a parachute jump when I was in the Navy. Which is a long story I could tell you another day.
Now back to the re-entry news. A camera was mounted inside
a part of the Artemis spacecraft that looked into the compartment
where the parachutes were located. From that camera, we could see
the main canopies deploy and snap open. I think there may have
been a video feed delay from that camera because the video of the
chute opening seemed jilted. Sort of like a series of stills
instead of a smooth continuous motion.
The coverage continued with actually seeing the splashdown and recovery. Which, I think was nice but, a little less dramatic. The announcer then went on to say how this was another historic moment that demonstrated how when we put our best and our brightest to the task. We can achieve great things. It was at that point when I felt that tug on my emotions. It is true that when we, as a people, work together, can achieve great things. When we think things through using reason and logic, we really can achieve great things.
Earlier this week Janet and I watched the recently released movie "Good Night Oppy." It's a movie about the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers. If you liked the movie Big Hero 6. You are sure to like the movie Good Night Oppy. I would give it an enthusiastic two thumbs up. Below is a link to the trailer of the film on YouTube.
You can stream the full movie on Amazon Prime video. Although, be
warned. You may, as with me, feel that same emotional tug that I
felt at the end. Seeing how we, as a people, actually can achieve
great things. But I don't think the numbers are on our side for
how it will go for us. The number of smart people is
overwhelmingly shadowed by the "not-so-smart" people.
The ones who believe the elections are fake if they don't win.
The ones who believe there is a deep state of lizard people who
eat babies. The ones who believe in Q anon. The ones who believe that only white Christians should be in power in our country and/or the
world. Personally, I think white supremacy is just a form of white
fragility. They would rather put down some demographic rather than
do something to elevate themselves. It's the path of least
resistance for them.
Then there are the ones who believe climate change is fake. The ones who believe vaccines plant mind-controlling chips in our brains. I could go on and on and on. But, I'm sure, you've heard of all this and probably a lot more.
It is when I weigh what we have done and can do against the things so many would rather believe. It is that, that make me feel sadness. It is that other part of our population who would rather choose to believe it's not their fault their lives are so miserable because it conveniently gives then an easy out. It is when I see that, my feelings of joy are deflated when I see that we can do great things. I wish it were different. But, wishing won't change the way things are. My optimism is slipping away for humanity. The numbers just don't seem to be on our side.
