Space Junk
Despite numerous problems and a few anxious moments, NASA's Return to Flight was a triumph, a mission that saw astronauts and engineers alike take unprecedented measures to avoid a repeat of the Columbia tragedy.
The shuttle Discovery is safely on the ground, the mission clock stopped at 13 days, 21 hours, 32 minutes and 48 seconds. The media throng sent to cover the landing has already packed up and left. Perhaps the only other shuttle missions to receive so much media attention, STS-51L and STS-107, did so for all the wrong reasons.
The crew of STS-114 captivated the public, led by Commander Eileen Collins, the first female commander of a space shuttle. The two-week mission will forever be remembered by a daring spacewalk to repair the heat shield on the underbelly of the craft. NASA is riding the wave of public enthusiasm and can once again actively look towards the future, wary but not frightened by the ghosts of past mistakes.
The Canadian Space Agency is hoping to tap into this momentum in a big way. The newest Canadian-built robotic arm was crucial to ensuring the safety of Discovery's crew, yielding immeasurable positive exposure for the robotics industry in Canada.
The Maple Lounge has learned that Prime Minister Paul Martin will soon make yet another spending announcement, in this case detailing a new direction and a vastly increased budget for the CSA. Our always reliable sources have provided us with an abbreviated copy of the statement Martin will make next week.
“Once again, I expect a lot of talk and absolutely no action,” scoffed Steven Harper when asked about the idea. Jack Layton on the other hand was cautiously optimistic. “Canadians want to breath clean air. There's no air in space. That either means that Canadians don't want to be in space, or that I need a new line.”
Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe was indifferent, noting that “Quebec has it's own space exploration program” and that the people of Quebec “have no interest in planets that aren't French.”
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office tried to evoke memories of John F. Kennedy's promise to place a man on the moon. "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are idiotic."
The shuttle Discovery is safely on the ground, the mission clock stopped at 13 days, 21 hours, 32 minutes and 48 seconds. The media throng sent to cover the landing has already packed up and left. Perhaps the only other shuttle missions to receive so much media attention, STS-51L and STS-107, did so for all the wrong reasons.
The crew of STS-114 captivated the public, led by Commander Eileen Collins, the first female commander of a space shuttle. The two-week mission will forever be remembered by a daring spacewalk to repair the heat shield on the underbelly of the craft. NASA is riding the wave of public enthusiasm and can once again actively look towards the future, wary but not frightened by the ghosts of past mistakes.
The Canadian Space Agency is hoping to tap into this momentum in a big way. The newest Canadian-built robotic arm was crucial to ensuring the safety of Discovery's crew, yielding immeasurable positive exposure for the robotics industry in Canada.
The Maple Lounge has learned that Prime Minister Paul Martin will soon make yet another spending announcement, in this case detailing a new direction and a vastly increased budget for the CSA. Our always reliable sources have provided us with an abbreviated copy of the statement Martin will make next week.
“I see Canada's destiny in the cosmos. In the next budget, I will increase the Canadian Space Agency's budget by 80 million percent. Canada will send people to the Moon by 2015! We will establish a moon base, and from there launch a manned mission to Mars! We'll show those clowns at NASA who should plant the first flag on the red and white surface of Mars!
In order to quickly catch up with NASA, we will establish a manned space flight program that meets or exceeds all safety requirements of the shuttle program. In partnership with the Department of National Defence, we will retrofit our fleet of Sea King helicopters for low orbit flight. The money we save by not buying new helicopters or decommissioned shuttles from NASA will directly benefit Canadian taxpayers!”
“Once again, I expect a lot of talk and absolutely no action,” scoffed Steven Harper when asked about the idea. Jack Layton on the other hand was cautiously optimistic. “Canadians want to breath clean air. There's no air in space. That either means that Canadians don't want to be in space, or that I need a new line.”
Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe was indifferent, noting that “Quebec has it's own space exploration program” and that the people of Quebec “have no interest in planets that aren't French.”
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office tried to evoke memories of John F. Kennedy's promise to place a man on the moon. "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are idiotic."
posted by Matt at 23:56
3 Comments:
I thought that the Sea Kings were "secretly" serving in Afgahnistan, or was that Scarbakistan???
We must have a lot of 'em, eh?
A.Les
I read on CNN this morning that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has already set money aside to soup up the HDMS Tulugaq so that the Danes can beat the Nuks to Mars and plant their flag on the uninhabitable planet, thus claiming it as their own. :p
A.Les: Put it this way. We have more Sea Kings than we need. Or at least I think that's the reason we don't know what to do with them.
expat: Hmmm ... would a Danish Fisheries Patrol vessel make it to Mars before a Canadian Sea King helicopter? It pains me to bet against my country, but $100 says if the Danes spend half as much time trying to make their boats fly as we do our helicopters, then they win hands down!
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