NASA Fails Again

I just read This Article about the future lunar vehicle. It seems that the visionaries at NASA are going to reuse the Apollo and Shuttle technologies in this "great effort".

Come on folks, think about this for a moment. NASA used to stand for cutting-edge technology, and pushing back the boundaries of the unknown. Ever since the Challenger and Columbia Disasters, NASA has lost its way. Instead of being on the vanguard of exploration, they want to play it safe.

The article states, in part

"There were great technological pushes to make those systems fly," Jeff Hanley, NASA's program manager for Project Constellation, said of NASA's past spacecraft. "We're not in that situation with the Orion. ... We're not pushing the edge of the envelope in terms of designing and building this system."

The push to the moon created innovation after innovation that we are still enjoying today. The extreme challenges and dangers faced by both the moon shot and the shuttle programs brought the human race into the future. Now, NASA wants to return to the past, to play it safe, to stay in the yard instead of venturing out into the woods.

Exploration is never safe. There is an inherent risk associated with facing the unknown, and pushing back the limits of the unknown. NASA has lost its edge and needs an overhaul.

barnyard

We took Laura to see Barnyard yesterday. It was the funnest movie I've seen in quite a while. It far surpasses Cars. Not only is it funny but has a good message as well.

Camping

Well, it's been awhile since I last blogged (you know, that sounds almost obscene.) Nothing much has happened, except I finally got around to fixing up an asp page on the church's webpage to allow non-coders to update the news and the prayer requests.

We went camping this past weekend with Elizabeth, Roger and their brood. We left on Thursday after work, and drove to Pipestem State Park. I had a family reunion there this past Saturday. Pipestem is the ancestral home-place, which makes it the logical choice.

Anyway, we got up there and I, the mountain man that I am, began to pitch camp. Now, where I work, we have a dress code that requires me not to wear shorts or jeans. So I was wearing a white dress shirt and khaki pants while I pitched the tent. I'm sorry to report that my pants did not survive the encounter. They were stained and crotch got ripped out when I was squatting down to drive in a tent peg.

But that's ok, the pants were well worn, and I wasn't too concerned. Rebecca and Elizabeth left to get food, and I started the campfire with nothing more than pine needles and wood (and a lighter of course). I felt rather proud of myself seeing that my camp was set, fire was burning and life was good.

The girls got back rather late with the food since they couldn't find a KFC in the same county as the park (why KFC I'll never know). So we ate chicken at about 10:00 PM, climbed in the tent and went to sleep.

About an hour later, we were woke by the sound of rain on our tent. We had a rather miserable night. Water had collected to a depth of about 3 inches over the night, soaking everything and everyone in the tent.

On Friday, we had to pack up all of our stuff and drive to a laundry mat to dry it out. It rained all day Friday, all night Friday night, and into Saturday. We couldn't cook because it was too wet for a fire. Our tent is a small three-person tent that is just about too small for the family to sleep in. It is way to small for us to stay in all day.

The reunion was ok. The most interesting (and morbid) thing was that we visited several cemeteries in the area that had my relatives buried in (date of death before 1900 folks!)

On Saturday, Roger noticed that two guys were setting camp across the field from us. As he watched them struggle with the tent for hours, he wondered if it was two friends, father and son, or something gross.

Gross won out. Here is a tip for anyone who goes camping. If you are going to have sex in a tent, please do so with the lantern off. The light will cast your shadow on the tent walls, and makes it a show to be endured by all those around you. Yuck!

On Saturday night, we got in a football game with some other campers, and played until it was too dark to see, and pulled cars around and shined the headlights on the field and finished the game.

Sunday was a beautiful day, and we had to leave.