Tag Archives: Earth

Barbara Marx Hubbard and the Origins of the Pro-Space Movement in the 1970s

Posted on by
2

The formal beginnings of the modern “pro-space movement”—really an extension of the ad hoc efforts to gain and sustain public support for an aggressive spaceflight agenda earlier led by Wernher von Braun and others—might be best traced to the June 1970 formation of the Committee for the Future (CFF), a small group of space activists, dreamers, and misfits.

Meeting in the home of Barbara Marx Hubbard, daughter of the toy king, and her husband, artist-philosopher Earl Hubbard, in Lakeville, Connecticut, they proposed establishing a lunar colony. They unabashedly offered this as a great utopian experiment in which humanity, free from the constraints of everyday society, could create a perfect community.

Barbara Marx-Hubbard

Barbara Marx Hubbard

The CFF’s charter clearly voiced these utopian ideals: “Earth-bound history has ended. Universal history has begun. Mankind has been born into an environment of immeasurable possibilities. We, the Committee for the Future, believe that the long-range goal for Mankind should be to seek and settle new worlds. To survive and realize the common aspiration of all people for a future of unlimited opportunity, this generation must begin now to find the means of converting the planets into life support systems for the race of Men.”

They concluded, “A Challenge of this magnitude can emancipate the genius of Man.” They also offered shares in the lunar colony to millions of investors, immediately creating a constituency that could lobby Congress for funding for bold space ventures.

They convinced Representative Olin Teague, a longtime supporter of Apollo, to sponsor a resolution calling for a study of the feasibility of this lunar effort. When NASA, the aerospace industry, and the science community opposed the resolution, fearing that it might jeopardize other plans, it died a prompt death in Congress. CFF then rewrote the bill to propose a “citizens in space” mission in low-Earth orbit, called “Mankind One,” but NASA opposed that as well and it met a similar fate.

Many within NASA apparently agreed with the ideology of the CFF, although they eschewed its political strategies. Barbara Hubbard wrote how upon first meeting Christopher C. Kraft, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed the Johnson Space Center in 1973), he told her, “This step into the universe is a religion and I’m a member of it.” Hubbard was deeply troubled, however, by the reaction of NASA to the CFF’s proposals. She wrote, “The corporate decision of NASA as a government agency was less responsive than the decision of any of its individual members.” One may trace to this incident the beginnings among the Committee for the Future of a wariness that NASA might not “do the right thing” in opening the space frontier to “citizen activities.” Such wariness continues to the present among many in the pro-space movement.

Organizing symposia, called “synergistic convergences” or SYNCONs, and publishing literature about a hopeful future in space, members of the CFF converted a sizable group of mostly young people to a utopian future in space. Space groupies came from everywhere to participate in the SYNCONs, some wearing “Star Trek” uniforms, energizing a loyal base of activists who firmly believed that only through space settlement will the human destiny of a perfect society be realized. While the Committee for the Future ceased to exist as a separate organization in the mid-1970s, Barbara Hubbard continued her commitment to an expansive human future in space.

Most assuredly the space professionals at NASA and in industry considered Barbara Hubbard and the CFF, both then and now, somewhat “wacky” and without substance. But the CFF represented a strain of spaceflight enthusiasm that could not be ignored—one that emphasized individual activism and blatant utopianism and it gained a greater respectability when later espoused by more credible advocates such as Princeton University professor Gerard K. O’Neill and Cornell University astrophysicist Carl Sagan in the latter 1970s.

Barbara Marx Hubbard has remained involved in futurist activities since this time. She was a founding member of the World Future Society, the Society for the Universal Human, and co-founder of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution.

Roger D. Launius is a Senior Curator in the Division of Space History at the National Air and Space Museum

Shaking It Up: Planetary Tectonics Throughout the Solar System

Posted on by
1

I first thought of putting together a book on planetary tectonics when I was working on a general subject matter book on the planets in the mid 1990’s.  That book had a “comparing the planets” section where I showed examples of tectonic landforms on Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.  Tectonic landforms are created when forces act on solid crustal material and they are found on objects of all sizes in the solar system.  The first step on the path to making Planetary Tectonics a reality was a topical session that my colleague and co-editor Rich Schultz and I chaired at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in November, 2000 in Reno, Nevada. Many of the speakers in that session contributed to chapters in the book.

Sheep Mountain is a thrust fault structure in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming

Sheep Mountain Sheep Mountain, Bighorn Basin, WY. View toward the southeast looking upstream, Bighorn River. See Lovell-Greybull Area, Big Horn Co., WY, Department of Agriculture, Commodity Stabilization Service, 1961: Air photo BBN-3BB-110. (27Jun65). Source: www.geology.wisc.edu.

Amenthes Rupes

The Amenthes Rupes thrust fault on Mars is similar to Sheep Mountain here on Earth. Credit: NASA/Smithsonian.

Over the last decade, numerous planetary missions have returned new images and data on many solar system objects.  These include the NEAR mission to the asteroid Eros, the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, and the Cassini mission to Saturn.  The wealth of data from these and other missions greatly advanced our understanding of planetary tectonics during the time many of the chapters were in the process of being written.  As lead author on the Mercury chapter and a member of the MESSENGER science team, this proved to be both exciting and frustrating.  With three successful flybys of Mercury that coincided with the typesetting and proofing phase of the book, it was impossible to do justice to the sum of MESSENGER’s amazing new discoveries.

Messenger View of thrust fault structure on Mercury

A newly discovered thrust fault scarp on Mercury revealed by the MESSENGER spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Less than a year into its mission, spectacular new images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have already revealed previously undetected tectonic landforms that are changing our understanding of the geologic evolution of the Moon.  After entering into orbit in March, 2011, I expect MESSENGER will write a whole new chapter in the tectonics of Mercury.

Tom Watters is the Senior Scientist of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies of the National Air and Space Museum

The Whole Earth Disk: An Iconic Image of the Space Age

Posted on by
9

Earth from Apollo 17. NASA Image #AS17-148-22727

Who has not seen the bright blue and white image of the Earth, swaddled in clouds and looking inviting, in numerous places and in various settings? Taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts on December 7, 1972, this photograph is one of the most widely distributed images in existence. It was the best one taken by these astronauts of a fully lit Earth, as the astronauts had the Sun behind them when they took the image. Sometimes called the “blue marble,” this photograph taken during the translunar coast en route to the Moon, showed the Mediterranean Sea area in the north and extended to a good depiction of the to the Antarctic south polar ice cap. There was a heavy cloud cover in the Southern Hemisphere but the majority of the coastline of Africa is clearly visible, especially the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, and portions of the Asian mainland.

As early as 1966, environmental activist Stewart Brand began a campaign for NASA to release an image of the whole Earth in space. Brand even made up buttons that asked, “Why haven’t we seen a photograph of the Whole Earth yet?” He sold them on college campuses and mailed them to prominent scientists, futurists, and legislators. Not until the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, however, did “Whole Earth” become a reality. As Brand recalled: “I was a big fan of NASA and of then ten years of space exploration that had gone up to that point, and there we were in 1966, having seen a lot of the moon and a lot of hunks of the Earth, but never the complete mandala… it was a bit odd that for ten years, with all the photographic apparatus in the world, we hadn’t turned the cameras that 180 degrees to look back.” This story has been told and retold in various ways, with some authors suggesting that Brand had alleged a NASA cover-up of secret photographs, although, his statements do not reflect this belief.

To capture this iconic image the astronaut/photographer used a 70-millimeter Hasselblad camera with an 80-millimeter lens. It was virtually impossible to tell who on the Apollo 17 crew actually took the photograph—Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, or Harrison Schmitt—all of whom took many photographs with the Hasselblad cameras aboard the spacecraft during the mission. More recent analysis credits Schmitt with the photo, but it cannot be determined for certain.

Stewart Brand put the photograph on the cover of his Whole Earth Catalog. This image, and the other stunning photographs of the Earth taken from space, inspired a reconsideration of our place in the universe.  It became the rallying cry of environmental activists, politicians, and scientists during the annual Earth Day celebrations. They used it as an object lesson of the Earth as a small, vulnerable, lonely, and fragile body teeming with life in a dull, black, lifeless void. While self-regulating and ancient, humanity proved a threat to this place. According to Brand and other ecologists, the Earth required human protection and the Whole Earth disk signaled its fragility.

Earthrise as seen from Apollo 8 spacecraft while orbiting the Moon in December, 1968. NASA Image #EL-2001-00365

The whole Earth image, as well as the earlier Earthrise photograph prompted the people of the world to view the planet Earth in a new way. Writer Archibald MacLeish summed up the feelings of many people when he wrote at the time of Apollo, that “To see the Earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the Earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now that they are truly brothers.” The modern environmental movement was galvanized in part by this new perception of the planet and the need to protect it and the life that it supports.

Roger D. Launius is senior curator in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

Antarctic Update

Posted on by
5

More notes from the field in this follow-up to: “From Earth to Mars: Studying Climate Change in Antarctica“

Post-doctoral fellow Maria Banks standing in front of C-17 after landing on the sea ice at McMurdo Station.

To get to Antarctica, I first flew on commercial flights from Washington, D.C. to Christchurch, New Zealand. While in Christchurch, I picked up special gear for the cold and harsh conditions in Antarctica from the US Antarctic Program Clothing Distribution Center. Several days later, I boarded a C-17 plane bound for McMurdo Station, Antarctica. In November, the temperatures are still cold enough that the sea ice surrounding McMurdo is used as a runway for aircraft. As I first stepped off the plane in Antarctica onto that expansive sheet of snow-covered ice, I was greeted by a blast of icy air, biting wind, and an amazing view of Mt. Erebus, the southernmost historically active volcano. It was so beautiful, it almost took my breath away!

View from Observation Hill of McMurdo Station on Ross Island, Antarctica.

Over the following week at McMurdo Station, I completed several safety and survival training courses to prepare for my departure into the deep field. The most memorable of these courses was snowmobile training, in which we had to drive “ski doos” through an obstacle course on the sea ice, and Snow Craft I, also known as “Happy Camper School.” At happy camper school, we were taught techniques for keeping warming, dealing with emergencies such as frost bite and hypothermia, how to set up various types of tents in the snow, find a lost person in a white out (with white buckets on our heads!), build a snow wall out of snow bricks, and spend the night in a survival trench.

Completed and furnished (with a sleeping bag rated for minus 40 degrees!) survival trench. A sled and some extra snow bricks are used as a roof. The sled has been pulled to the side to allow a view into the trench. Photo by Maria Banks.

There are also many opportunities for interesting hikes surrounding McMurdo and field trips to explore some of the wonders of Antarctica. I was lucky enough that on a field trip to an ice cave, I was visited by several Adelie penguins. While people are not allowed to approach and disturb wildlife in Antarctica, the penguins can do whatever they like! These Adelie penguins were very curious and came within roughly five feet to check us out before tobogganing (sliding on their bellies) off across the sea ice.

A group of Adelie penguins “hanging out” about 10 feet from the camera on the sea ice just outside of McMurdo Station. Photo by Maria Banks.

Soon I will depart for our remote field site to begin work on the drilling project and start a different type of adventure. We will arrive at this site via a four to five hour flight on a C-130 plane with skis!

Maria Banks is a post-doctoral fellow with the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/webimages/640/WEB11296-2009_640.jpg

Post-doctoral fellow Maria Banks standing in front of C-17 after landing on the sea ice at McMurdo Station.

From Earth to Mars: Studying Climate Change in Antarctica

Posted on by
3

I first became fascinated with glaciers during two summer seasons in Alaska while working on a cruise ship as a harpist. I would perform in a lounge at the top of the ship surrounded by windows and would watch in awe as we sailed past glaciers in Glacier Bay National Park as I performed. This was followed by three world cruises and many months sailing through Scandinavia where I was mesmerized by glaciers and icebergs in areas such as Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, and Norway, and even sailed precariously through icebergs to reach the southern extend of the seasonal sea ice. One of my absolute favorite experiences was sailing through the gorgeous scenery of the narrow Norwegian Fjords. During my time off, I would escort tours to the glaciers and learn about the characteristic glacial terrain and how to climb and hike on top of the ice itself.

Maria Banks

Now, as a scientist and a post-doctoral fellow with the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum, I look at glaciers and ice sheets a little differently and have the opportunity to study them in detail. To understand more about ice sheets and climate change on Earth, I will be working for three months as part of an ice core drilling project (WAIS Divide Project) that will ultimately collect ice that was deposited as snow on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet over the last approximately 100,000 years. Layers in this ice contain clues to past climatic conditions on Earth and changes that have occurred over the last 100,000 years.  For example, air bubbles trapped in the ice contain greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane) which tell us the levels of these gases in the past and the chemical makeup of the water can be used as a thermometer to measure the temperature when the snow fell.

As a planetary geologist, I have also studied ice on Mars. Mars has both north and south polar caps, similar to the ice caps on Earth, that also contain layers with information about past climates and environmental conditions. Learning more about the clues hidden in the Earth’s ice layers will provide further insight into understanding what is recorded in the ice layers on Mars. Personally, I am also very excited about spending time in Antarctica as its low humidity and very cold temperatures make it the closest Earth analog for conditions on the surface of Mars. This is the closest I can get to experiencing what it would be like to live on Mars!

South polar cap of Mars in summer. Image taken by Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on April 17, 2000. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

My job in this project is to live at the field site on the ice sheet and work as a science technician handling, logging, and preparing ice cores as they are acquired, using an ice core drill called the DISC drill, to later be shipped back to the United States for analysis. I will do this for three months and will live in an unheated tent during the Antarctic summer!

To see a detailed report on my daily work and adventures in Antarctica, please visit my blog at: http://www.adventures-in-climate-change.com/adventures-in-climate-change/Antarctica/Antarctica.html

Maria Banks is a post-doctoral fellow with the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum.