Tag Archives: European Space Agency

International news

Good job, Philae lander

As an American baby boomer who came of age during the Space Race, I am in absolute awe of the picture I saw this morning.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/photo/philae-probe-sends-back-first-photo-surface-comet-n247586

The European Space Agency’s comet lander, Philae, has sent back the first image fromĀ Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Holy cow!

That a mechanical device could be launched from Earth, travel 10 years through deep space and then land on a comet, for crying out loud, is enough of a scientific marvel all by itself.

Now we’re getting pictures that are being sent more than 300 million miles from Earth. What’s more, the clarity is astounding beyond measure.

I saw the news report earlier this week when Philae landed on the comet and watched space agency engineers cheering, back-slapping and hugging each other. It reminded me of the reaction at NASA when, for instance, the late Neil Armstrong told the world: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

Oh, those were the days.

I’m glad the ESA has accomplished this monumental feat. I’m delighted to see the pictures. A part of me, though, is a bit envious of the spectacular success that someone else has just achieved.

 

 

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Big Brother must have blinked on this one

“1984” has been praised and demonized since its publication in 1949.

The novel by George Orwell has been seen as a predictor of relentless government surveillance, where Big Brother would have his eyes on you at all times, tracking your every movement, utterance and relationship you’ve ever experienced.

We’ve all heard the reference to “Big Brother is watching,” correct?

The National Security Agency stuff in recent times has helped bring “1984” back into the public discussion.

What in the world was Big Brother doing about eight days ago when a Malaysian Air jetliner with 239 passengers and crew took off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing? He must have taken a snooze. The plane reportedly took a hard left turn somewhere over the Gulf of Thailand and then — poof! — disappeared, apparently without a trace.

The United States has several spy satellites orbiting Earth. So do China, Russia and the European Space Agency (with the Brits, French and Germans leading the way). They’ve supposedly got eyes on virtually every square mile of the planet at the same time.

Just how does an airplane the size of a Boeing 777 long-haul jetliner vanish without anyone having a clue where it could be at this moment? Is it at the bottom of some large body of water? Did it crash in a remote jungle? Did someone — as a few “experts” have speculated in the past 24 hours — hijack the bird and fly it to some airstrip in, say, Pakistan, Tibet or Outer Mongolia?

The question on my mind at this moment is this: Has the Big Brother scare planted in our heads 64 years ago by George Orwell’s frightening novel been overplayed and overhyped by some media frenzy?

The great heavyweight champion Joe Louis once commented after nearly losing his title in 1941 to light-heavyweight champion Billy Conn — who out-boxed the champ for 12 rounds before getting knocked out in Round 13 when he decided to slug it out: “You can run but you can’t hide.”

Well, maybe you can hide.