Star Brothers
Major General Leonov
Continuing a long-running interest in the Soviet space programme on this blog, reader Andy B has sent me these great paintings from a Russian art book called "The Soviet Character", which for me, do capture the enthusiasm we once all felt for the Space Race.
My gut feeling about interest in Space travel amongst the general public of the UK is that it has waned and continues to wane. I suppose this is to be expected since NASA's space programme has dwindled and seldoms features in the British media. There are also very few space toys in the shops. This is despite a number of excellent TV series on the cosmos such as Professor Brian Cox's. I suspect that it will take something jaw-droppingly dramatic to rekindle public zeal for space flight over and above any brave efforts that commercial outfits like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic and new space nations like China and India may be making.
What do you think? Is it the same in Europe, US and Canada?
It's funny you say that, because I was just reading a blog post titled "UK science interest spiking? Blame Cox" in the same week as seeing popular host Stephen Colbert interviewing the crew of the shuttle Atlantis.
ReplyDeleteI've said it before and I'll say it again: NASA really dropped the ball in terms of feeding the public hunger for space exploration, and now people are waiting to see what comes next with this new commercial phase. We're at an odd in-between moment where the public really wants something to capture its imagination and inspire optimism, and one way or another they'll find it, but there's no way for us to see it coming before it actually gets here.
Ack, I guess that link to the Colbert Report video of his segment with the Atlantis crew doesn't work anymore. :-(
ReplyDeleteSimple reduction as it may be, I am - quite cheerily - bound to think that space travel will be a necessity for the survival of mankind, so it is only a matter of time when space travel will become topical again, big time. And all these FAB S.W.O.R.D. toys will really get displayed as treasures of the past in real Mars Base cantinas... Regretting only the fact that, by then, I will be made of stars once again ...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if featuring commercial spaceflight in movies might help? Not as the scene of crime and disaster. But simply as a part of the background in the way passenger aircraft are in so many movies? Simply as a way of getting from A to B. Expensive, sure, but might be a way to grab the imagination of the public?
ReplyDeleteArto, you are a star already. No need to wait for dissolution (smiles). But I do like your poetical description of your future absence.
But I must ask - why do you think space travel will become a matter of necessity? I'm not saying otherwise, just want to understand your thoughts more clearly.
Hi Philo, maybe it was my choice of words - I meant there's no pessimism involved, I would love to look forward to the future of mankind as a (peaceful, I wish) expansion to the whole planetary system, for which I think the technical capabilities are there just to be found. So that's the Utopia for me, and I dearly hope it's not unjustified.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Arto. It could be done. All that's needed is the right motivation.
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