Anniversary of a Tragedy

Thirty years ago last Thursday, I walked into my kids’ school. A television on a cart had been set up in the hall. Kids siting on the floor and teachers leaning against walls watched intently. I’d forgotten the shuttle launch was that morning. Which only shows how complacent I’d become over space launches.

For years, ever since the first rocket launch into space, I always stopped whatever I was doing and sat glued to the TV. Every channel broadcast the launches and, like millions of Americans, I eagerly watched. Then, sorry to say, the launches became almost commonplace. Ho-hum. Americans had walked on the moon—several times. The first shuttle launch was exciting, mainly because Hubs and I had taken our kids to Cape Kennedy Space Center and watched a demonstration on the tiles that covered the shuttle. But then interest dwindled. Even for me, who used to know the names of the original astronauts.

So that morning, when I saw the television, I joined the others to watch a space launch. How exciting that a teacher had been chosen to join the crew, especially that she would broadcast to classrooms from space. Then 73 seconds into the launch, the Challenger exploded. Right before our eyes.

Silence. Then gasps of horror. Followed by the realization of what had just happened. Tears and sobs. Even though 30 years have passed, I still remember the adults looking at each other in disbelief. Someone, I assume the principal, turned off the television and sent everyone back to their rooms. The teachers, still in shock, were left to deal with the children—their questions, their fears—while trying to deal with their own disbelief and grief.

What followed was an investigation with lots of finger-pointing. What happened, how did it happen, who was to blame.

Those who thought space exploration was a waste of money had more ammunition for their arguments. I’m reminded of the 2014 movie Interstellar. Because of drought and famine, all technology (including NASA) has ceased. Farming is all that matters. Forget exploration, find a cure for the drought. Ironically, only space exploration will help the inhabitants of a dying Earth.

Fortunately, we’re not that short-sighted. Space exploration continues. Our probes have found many “Goldilocks” planets (ones where the conditions are “just right” for human habitation). But the takeaway from the Challenger tragedy is that we can’t give up. In school, we learned about the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, Marco Polo, Balboa. How many early explorers perished? No idea. Certainly, many did. As horrific as the Challenger disaster was, we learn from it and continue.

RIP the Challenger crew.

Second Time Around Movies

Remember when you watched a movie more than once because it was so good? I still do. Every time Indiana Jones or Goonies or The African Queen come on television, I’ll watch them. Never mind I have all on DVDs and could watch anytime.

But sometimes I have to watch a movie because either I missed things the first time around or got hopelessly lost. People on the ‘net will talk about a movie I’d just seen and mentioned things I missed. One reason is that I have tunnel vision. Seriously. Not in everyday seeing—like when I’m driving, but while watching a movie. I concentrate so much on the main character that I miss all the stuff on the periphery. Another reason for not getting everything is the sound in theaters. Sometimes the music and sound effects drown out the dialogue. Thank goodness for closed captioning on the DVD or television. Am I showing my age or what?

A movie I had to watch three times before I really got it was Inception. Holy smoke! How many dream levels were there? And what was with that ending? Reality or a dream? Talk about complicated. Now Interstellar was pretty straight-forward. Search for an alternate planet because Earth’s food supplies were running out. But then someone in a Facebook group mentioned the tesseract scene. Say what? Where was that? I thought I knew what a tesseract was from A Wrinkle in Time. So I had to watch the movie again to find it. Oh, yeah. They even mentioned the word tesseract in the movie. Totally missed it first time around.

This weekend, I watched Jupiter Ascending. First, it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I knew it was sci-fi, but somehow I missed reading about the premise. I had to watch it a second time to figure out what was what and who was who. It would have helped if I hadn’t been reading email the first time around. I have to say the graphics were great, the space scenes terrific, and I enjoyed watching the relationship between Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. I caught a few send ups to The Matrix trilogy (same producers) and Star Wars. I’m sure there were others that I missed even the second time around. I’m glad I didn’t see it at the theater, though. Either the mix was poor on the DVD or they cranked up the music and effects in the space scenes while the dialogue was so quiet. Eddie Redmayne’s character practically whispered. Very annoying.

I’m not saying I don’t like complicated plots. I like movies (and television shows) that make me think, that have several layers. Shows that can be enjoyed on different levels. But mainly I watch to be entertained. On Saturday, my monthly post on Paranormal Romantics was about Science Fiction Friday and the new shows on the Syfy channel. I think I OD’d on sci-fi this weekend. As if movies and TV weren’t enough, we had our grandson overnight and had to watch three episodes of Star Wars Rebels and read stories from the show to him. Good thing I like sci-fi.

What do you think of movies? Do you rewatch or is once enough?

Interstellar

photo credit: IMDB

We watched Interstellar over the weekend. While I can’t say it’s one of my favorite movies, it does present an interesting premise. What if we stop spending money on space exploration and maintain the planet as is? If so, what happens if our planet becomes uninhabitable? How does mankind survive?

In the movie, Earth experiences such extreme temperatures, drought, and famine worse than the Dust Bowl of the 1930s that humanity faces extinction. A secret NASA (secret because nobody wants to spend money on space exploration when people are starving) sends a team of astronauts beyond our solar system to find an inhabitable planet. Of course, there are various crises and dilemmas. Wouldn’t be a good sci-fi action/adventure if there weren’t.

Much has been written lately about the discovery of new planets that appear to be capable of sustaining life. But it would be no quick trip to check out what telescopes and probes tell us. To get beyond our solar system we’d need either faster-than-light propulsion or wormholes (hypothetical shortcuts through spacetime). So far, we haven’t invented the former or discovered the latter.

Let’s say, scientists discover a wormhole that will let us travel to another part of our galaxy or into a different one. What would it take to get mankind to leave Earth? A global disaster? Would we see it coming? Would we heed the warnings in time? In Deep Impact (an asteroid will hit Earth), we hide underground until the Earth becomes safe again. In the movie 2012, we build an ark. But who is chosen to survive? How? A lottery? Your job? Bribes to officials?

I’ve written before about Mars One, the privately funded project to send a team on a one-way trip to establish a colony on Mars. NASA is also working on a plan to go to Mars. Progress is slow. Funding is always a challenge. If we knew that sometime in the future humanity would have to leave Earth, would we expedite that endeavor now? Or would we leave it up to future generations?

A lot of questions in this post. I love a good adventure movie. Disaster movies, not as much. But they do make me think. It’s that “what if” question that writers instinctively ask. It’s what makes a good story. But what if (see?) it’s not just a story? What if it’s real?

What do you think?