The Waters of Mars and Philosophy

 
By now, everyone (I hope) has heard that NASA has confirmed the discovery of flowing, liquid water on Mars. These are exciting times, people! Why? We are one step closer to potentially discovering LIFE on another planet! As Bill Nye the Science Guy put it on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, "Wherever we find water on Earth, we find living things," so it stands to reason that finding water on Mars could very well lead to finding life on the Red Planet. Unfortunately, that same panel discussed how few people seem to really care about this ground-breaking discovery despite all of its amazing implications. Ricky Valez perhaps summed up the thoughts of those who are less than impressed with the discovery of water on Mars:

"Why would I be excited about Mars? I'm barely excited about Earth! [...] Trump is first in polls right now! Are you kidding me? Let's defeat ISIS! How about that?"

This struck a cord with me on several levels. Nye did his best to explain how important an interest in space is by pointing out how we would not be as technologically advanced as we are without the space program to no avail. (Use the interwebs via a computer, or a cell phone, or velcro? Thank the space program for ALL of that.) As a nerd, and a space enthusiast, it hurts my soul to hear people say that they don't care about space exploration. Especially when their reasons are so terrestrial. Here's the thing, stay with me here cause I'm about to get philosophical, one of the main reasons for conflict in our world today (outside of a fight for resources) is the very basic idea of "you're different from me, and I don't like that." At its very base, that's the underlying feeling behind nearly every major conflict we have. From religious differences, to racial differences, to simple language barriers, the issue is our resistance to accept our differences. Which is so trivial and petty considering that we're actually all the same down to molecular level. Nearly all of our differences are a matter of geography. The language you speak is determined by where you were born. The color of your skin is determined by the geographic location of your ancestors (did they live in the sunny Sahara, or the perpetually overcast UK, or a mix of both?). Even the religion you practice is (most often, but of course not always) determined by where you were born and/or where your family hails from.

So, what does this have to do with an interest in space? I'm getting there, I promise.

I live in New Orleans, a city known for the tendency of its inhabitants to spend their entire lives in the neighborhood in which they grew up. It's a beautiful thing to have such a deep love for your city, but it's also easy to fall into the trappings of living in a bubble. When you live in a bubble, it's much too easy to think of your world in terms of the confines of that bubble; to not care about things outside of said bubble. We defend our bubble fiercely, because in many ways it's all we know. We make huge decisions based on the parameters of our bubble, often with little to no regard for the impact those decisions may have on the world outside our bubble. That is why it is so very important for us to work on expanding our bubble. If you think about what's best only for your neighborhood, then the ones around it may start to suffer. That suffering leads to resentment and anger from the surrounding neighborhoods, which in turn leads to resentment and anger from your neighborhood towards those railing against it. Now, even if your bubble expands to cover your city, or state, or even the Country as a whole, there are still billions of people living outside your bubble who also matter and are making decisions that WILL effect you. Whether those decisions are on a human level such as the atrocious conditions in Syria leading to thousands of refugees fleeing into other Countries, or on an environmental level like the amount of carbon in our atmosphere destroying the polar ice caps and raising the sea levels globally, we are all (at some point) going to be affected by the actions of those outside our bubbles. It's not until our bubble encompasses the entire planet that we will be able to truly see how connected we all are, and will be able as a species to make decisions that will benefit us all. Having an interest in space exploration breeds that kind of global thinking. When we look to the stars, we begin to realize how tiny our world is in the grand scheme of things, and how connected we all are as its inhabitants. We all live on this one, tiny, watery rock together. The arbitrary lines we've drawn around our Countries and cities are as meaningless as they are imaginary when we look at the Earth as a whole.

Space exploration is important to our technological advancement, yes. More than that, though, space exploration is exceedingly important to our species' advancement.

She Blinded Me with Science: Special Print-Only Edition

This is a print-only, special edition of She Blinded Me with Science (usually these posts are supplemental to my science segment on local radio show, The Week in Geek). Enjoy!

An amazing thing happened yesterday. Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) landed a probe on a comet for the first time ever in the history of humans.

First image from Philae of the surface of Comet 67P/C-G

After hitching a 10 year ride to reach Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the Rosetta satellite, and a 7 hour descent to the surface, Philae bounced twice (due to the comet's weak gravitational pull), but was able to use it's thrusters to force itself back down to the surface. Despite some issues firing the harpoons intended to anchor the probe to the surface of the comet as it spins through space, Philae is currently nestled near a cliff on the comet's surface, about a kilometer from its target landing spot. Though it is currently stable on the surface, Philae is still not properly anchored. Due to its final landing location, there are some concerns about the ability for Philae's solar panels to gather enough sunlight to properly power the probe.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

It wasn't a perfect landing, but it was a success nonetheless. Very rarely do complicated maneuvers like these go perfectly their first go-round, and this mission was nearly impossible to properly train for. Comet 67P/C-G is oddly shaped, a fact no one knew until July 2014, which gave project scientists an incredibly short window to calculate an appropriate landing site in a Goldilocks scenario (not too cold, not too hot, close to a scientifically active area to gather good data, but not so close as to risk damage, good timing to ensure enough surface sunlight will be available throughout the mission, etc.). Additionally, despite an imperfect landing and potential stability and power issues, the mission has been providing scientists with valuable data throughout Rosetta's 10 year flight to reach Comet 67P/C-G, and Philae has been successfully transmitting valuable and historic data images since its landing. This is an amazing thing that has occurred during our lifetime, and I feel privileged to bear witness to scientific feats such as this.

Monika Jones and Dr. Matt Taylor. Photograph: European Space Agency/PA

It is unfortunate, however, that in 2014, during a time of great scientific achievement, we are still struggling with issues of social privilege and misogyny. British scientist Dr. Matt Taylor is the ESA Project Scientist on the Rosetta Mission, and has been a recognizable and much talked about personality for the project. Much like Curiosity Rover engineer, Bobak Ferdowsi, Taylor has been lauded by the media for not being the stereotypical stuffed-shirt, lab coat wearing, old man scientist spokesperson. Unlike Ferdowsi, Taylor was not thrust into the limelight by the media. He has been at the forefront of the mission for awhile; giving news briefs and speaking publicly about the mission was an established aspect of his role in the project prior to the landing. Nevertheless, he chose to don a shirt covered in half-naked women on the day that he knew the world would be watching. Achievements like the Philae Landing are a big deal, not just for the advancement of scientific achievement, but for inspiring a younger generation to pursue study and a career in the sciences. How many young minds were opened to the fantastic world of space exploration when Neil Armstrong's foot famously touched the surface of the moon? That was in 1969, when entire families gathered together around the one, tiny television set they had between them to witness history. In 2014, when many own several TVs, computers with instant internet access, and have the ability to watch live television on their smart phones, it is mind-boggling to imaging the number of young, impressionable eyes that were fixed on bright screens to witness history, and consequently this shirt:

Now, I don't know why Dr. Taylor chose to wear that shirt. Perhaps that is simply the shirt that he wears on Wednesdays, and no thought went into his wardrobe selection whatsoever. I cannot presume to know what his motivation was when he buttoned up that brightly colored shirt covered in half naked women wearing latex and lingerie. I cannot even presume that he had a specific motivation other than to simply put on a shirt. What I can say, is that as the Project Scientist and an established spokesperson for the Rosetta Mission, that neither he nor any of the many people around him thought that perhaps wearing a shirt that sexually objectifies women on the day that Philae landed and the whole world would be watching might not be the best choice is indicative of the much larger, systemic issue of sexism in the STEM community. Now I am not, by any means, claiming that Taylor himself is sexist. I don't know him. What I am saying is that by wearing that shirt while acting as a representative of the scientific community and of the ESA, a message (intentional or not) was sent that the sexual objectification of women in the workplace is acceptable.

To be clear: I do not believe that there was any malicious intent involved here, but I do feel that it is important to draw attention to these instances when they occur. We, as a society, have collectively determined that sexual harassment is unacceptable, especially in the workplace, and this was no less an example of sexual harassment than slapping the rear end of a coworker. (Before anyone brings up that I'm projecting my American expectations onto a European society, I assure you, it's not acceptable there either.) In my opinion, ignoring this situation as a harmless, albeit unfortunate, fashion faux pas is just as dangerous as claiming "boys will be boys" when an office worker slaps the rear end of a coworker as she walks by.

She Blinded Me with Science! 7/26/14

She Geek Eris drops a knowledge egg on dat ass via her segment on local radio show The Week in Geek. Here are this week's topics:

Comic Con and NASA and Sea Labs, Oh My!

So, everyone has been talking about ComicCon since it opened this weekend. The cosplay, the nuggets of movie and comic information, the experiences…there’s SO much to talk about and look forward to. Except Star Wars Episode VII. Sadly, yet again, we fans get nothin’. So I decided that since my love of all things space related began with watching Star Wars and Star Trek as a kid, I would fill that void with real life space info courtesy of NASA. Now, I briefly mentioned last week that NASA is about to start testing part of their Space Launch System rocket at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi (which, by the way, if you haven’t been, go; it’s awesome). But as cool as those rockets are, they are only one part of space exploration, and the part my little 5 year old self dreamed about was being an astronaut visiting a galaxy far, far away. While most of us can only imagine what it would be like to live in a 'Zero G' environment, actual astronauts need to know what it’s like. So the geniuses at NASA created NEEMO, the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project. 

It’s essentially a training program designed to allow astronauts to conduct field tests in the types of extreme environments they would encounter in space by sending them to live in a research lab under the sea (did you just start humming the theme from SeaLab 2021 too, or was that just me?). Aquarius is the only lab of its kind, is located 62 feet below the surface in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and is currently the home of four ‘aquanauts’, as NASA calls them. This past Monday, the NEEMO 18 crew dove down to their watery home for the next 9 days where they will test their spacewalk techniques, and practice performing tasks in a harsh environment not unlike that of space. 

(Aquanauts using a Core Drill to practice drilling into another planetary surface)

As a bonus, NASA technicians can simulate varying levels of gravitational pull by simply weighing down the aquanauts as they go about their tasks, because the goal of these training exercises is to prepare astronauts for exploratory missions to asteroids, the Moon, Mars, and one day that galaxy far, far away. So, while we’re pouring over all the sci-fi announcements coming out of ComicCon this weekend (myself included) let us not forget that there are real life astronauts training right now to bring us one small step and one giant leap closer to making that fiction a reality.

For up to date info about the NEEMO project and what the crew is up to, check out their Facebook page, here!

Here is an interview with NASA Astronaut / NEEMO Aquanaut Mark Vande Hei, currently living in Aquarius: