Galactic Vacation Plans on Hold

Written by Dr Klaus L.E. Kaiser on November 3, 2014. Posted in Current News

Just when you thought that your next trip to a holiday resort was going to “the Moon” the news is discouraging. 

Not only did the latest supply rocket to the International Space Station blow up shortly after lift-off, now the Virgin Galactic spaceship suffered the same fate—poor Sir Richard Branson—with a few million bucks gone sour and the new era of “affordable”($250,000, no carry-on luggage) space travel will have to be postponed. The more than 800 people who have already paid or put down deposits for a trip on SpaceshipTwo will have to wait a while longer.

From Here to There

Ever since the Russian space capsule Sputnik graced the earth’s firmament, interplanetary and intergalactic travel has been the stuff of many futuristic desires.

When President John F. Kennedy gave his “Moon speech” on May 25, 1961 and uttered the words “First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the earth, “everyone was awestruck.

Despite a mountain of technological and material-science challenges, Kennedy’s vision was achieved with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon. Since then the last manned landing there was achieved by Apollo 17, in 1972‚  more than 40 years ago. You might wonder why were there no more manned missions since then?

The Moon

Unless it happens to be a “New Moon”at the time (or cloudy night), if you look up into the night sky you’ll see a part of the Moon, waxing and waning over a month’s time from a faint outline to a full Moon and back. That cycle of Moon phases is determined by the earth’s path around the Sun and the Moon’s path around the Earth.

Apart from that influence though, the Moon is more important for “Moon-lighting”than anything else. That’s why there haven’t been any manned missions to it for over forty years. After all, on the Moon is no water, no atmosphere, no plants, no wildlife (not any life) and no Wi-Fi either. Hence it may be difficult to keep your socializing network going.The Moon does have significant influences on life on Earth, one of the most important of which is on the ocean’s tides. When the Moon’s and the Sun’s gravitational forces upon earth are in conjunction, so-called “spring-tides”occur on our planet, often with severe flooding of low-lying ocean front properties.

Not that I want to discourage you, but if you think that vacationing on the Moon may not be your cup o’ tea, a trip to the planet “next door,“ Mars, likely isn’t either.

Planet Mars

Planet Mars just happens to be a bit further afield than the Moon, roughly about 1,000 times as far, give or take a few miles, but it really does not matter. Even the fastest space ship will take a couple of months to get there. However, the requirement for time is secondary. When you’ll descend on that planet’s surface, your “welcome committee”consists only of carbon dioxide molecules and high-velocity sand particles, not young Maldivian or Branson-type virgins.

You shouldn’t be discouraged though. The experience of visiting Mars will be overwhelming and unique. On top of that, if you’ll ever make it safely back to this planet (Earth) you can tell your friends and neighbors all about it and proudly so. That alone is worth the chance, at least for some folks.

The Issue at Hand

The issue at hand though is the destination for your next early spring vacation. Given the current space travel situation, you might prefer an earthly destination over space travel.

The choices are plentiful, so let me give you some hints. For example, you can visit the high Arctic and frolic with the polar bears at MINUS 30 ºC and near 24-hours of darkness or you can visit the tropics with average temperatures of PLUS 30 ºC and lots of sunshine. For less adventurous souls, there is a large range of destinations with temperature regimes in between those extremes.

Choose wisely and enjoy!

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