GOD AND STARSHIPS

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The recent upsurge of interest in interstellar travel, as manifested in symposia, workshops, a serious contract funded by DARPA titled “The 100 Year Starship,” at least two dedicated web sites, and astronomer confidence that “out there” are perhaps hundreds of millions of planets like Earth, has stirred reminiscences that are germane to the subject, if only to support the argument that big things happen from little steps along the way.

Post-World War II, a substantial amount of effort went into ferreting out peaceful uses for nuclear energy, among which were submarine and ship propulsion, commercial nuclear power plants, and fantastic geo-engineering schemes like using nuclear explosions to dig canals. General Atomics, then a division of General Dynamics in San Diego, California, was one of the sites where free-wheeling thinking and analyses were routine among a select cross-section of scientists. One idea that got a great deal of attention was powering a very large rocket with nuclear explosions. The scheme involved exploding small bombs behind a huge plate, atop which was mounted the spacecraft on a bank of compression springs, the purpose of which was to absorb the shock of the explosions. Scientists working on the concept included Freeman Dyson, Ted Taylor and Kedar Pyatt. Proponents presented data that showed a capability for interstellar travel.  Soon however, the ban on atmospheric nuclear explosions squelched the idea (keywords: Orion Rocket).

A serious study of a starship was undertaken by the admirable British Interplanetary Society (BIS) during the 1970’s with its Daedelus concept. This was a feasibility look at a fusion powered unmanned probe designed to approach Barnard’s Star, about ten light year’s distant, within the lifetimes of some of the engineers working on the project. Off and on, BIS has continued in the ensuing years with other concepts ( keywords: Daedelus Star Ship).

In the early nineties, Son Jon and I, BS-ing far into the night, came up with the idea of starting up a professional society, “The Interstellar Propulsion Society,” dedicated to exploring propulsion devices that would make interstellar travel possible, the idea being that if you could solve these problems, then the rest of the technology would rapidly fall into place. We would invite papers and publish a monthly journal. It started off with a bang. We got notables like Robert Forward, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Professor James Arnold (all deceased now), and the super enthusiast Marc Millis to agree to sit on the executive board. But as the months passed, this ambitious effort became overwhelming and we had to abandon it. Meantime, Marc Millis, who worked at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, approached Headquarters and asked the question: “Hey, shouldn’t we be doing this?” There was agreement to the tune of a $25,000 allocated to look into the subject. When the money ran out, to Marc’s dismay, there was no further interest. But Marc continued  working privately, in the process producing some of the most interesting presentations on the subject ever seen.

        In the course of time Marc left NASA to pursue advancements in interstellar travel. He set up the Tau Zero Foundation, dedicated toward that end. There are two web sites: www.tauzero.aero and centauridreams.org. Centauri Dreams is the medium for disseminating public information. Tau Zero aims at collecting and publishing serious papers. Son Jon keeps his hand in, helping with the web sites, while I am now just an interested bystander, and even a somewhat skeptic about the wisdom of attempting interstellar travel.

            But these efforts too could falter, as the organization’s proposal to work DARPA’s 100 Year Starship  study, funded at $500k, was awarded  instead to astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go into space. It should be noted that this study does not design a starship. Its purpose is to establish a foundation for other studies over the next 100 years, both government funded and private, leading ultimately to solutions to the problem of interstellar travel.

            In another scene, NASA has again entered investigations relating to interstellar travel, exploring ideas of achieving warp speed by exploiting mathematical loopholes that indicate that warping space-time is theoretically possible. In such a scheme a starship’s engine would compress the space ahead of it and expand the space behind it. In effect, the starship moves rapidly to another place without adverse effects on the travelers. In this wild scheme of things travel to the nearest stars might be accomplished in a matter of days without adverse effects, instead of hundreds of years by conventional propulsion. To this end, Dr. Harold White, lead scientist for Advanced Propulsion in NASA’s engineering directorate and a few colleagues are undertaking small scale experiments in a Houston “skunk works” to demonstrate that space time compression is indeed possible. 

          I have become a skeptic because it seems that the Great Creator of the cosmic experiment, which now credibly contains the possibility that there must be other populated planets, must have worried about cross-contamination, were the inhabitants of one planet to approach another. For instance, how could carbon based explorers conceivably interface successfully with silicon based life on another planet?  Suppose one of the creations has advanced so far that it concludes that all other life forms are irrelevant and must be eradicated?  Concerns such as this would help to explain placing them at distances so far apart that travel from one to another would be impossible. I can imagine now, after having viewed productions such as Star Wars and Star Trek, Avatar and Outlanders, the Great Creator would feel vindicated in having made that decision.

         Then again, my thoughts often turn to the uninteresting  “asteroid” that has been tracking Earth’s orbit around the sun at a position in line with its axis of rotation for some hundreds of years. I hope to reveal more (frailties of aging a consideration) in an upcoming novel, titled “An Exceptional Journey to the Moon,” of how its inhabitants are working the problem of seamlessly merging into Earth’s population, happily, one hopes, with the result that it becomes significantly upgraded.

ARE ASTRONAUTS ORDINARY PEOPLE?

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Throughout history people have been lifted to unparalleld heights by others who regarded them as heroes. Within the human psyche there seems to be a need for such regard, something akin to the need to become subjects of ill-defined deities. Some immediately come to mind: Thomas Paine, Horatio Nelson, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther, Edith Cavell, Irena Sendlerowa, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Cromwell. The list seems endless, though none enjoy universal acceptance. For instance, the German monk Martin Luther broke with the Catholic Church and generated a huge following. Among other issues, he took it to task for the abomination of selling indulgences. Separation into what became the Lutheran church did not endear him to the Vatican. Late in life, he was also known to have become strongly antisemitic.  Oliver Cromwell was a strong military leader as well as political, but is not admired by the Irish for his genocidal ventures in Ireland. Of course there are countless individual heroic acts, but those are generally accepted as singular manifestations of being caring and responsible human beings.

 Since the beginning of the space age, new heroes have appeared on the scene, at least for some, in the form of astronauts.... the brave souls that dare to venture into space. Some among astronauts are pleased to wear that crown, but the less egocentric would  prefer the stand taken by the late Neil Armstrong, the first to set foot on the moon. Armstrong argued that he was only doing his job, a position easily supported by acknowledgement that it would not have occurred but for the labors of thousands of scientists, design and development engineers, technicians, manufacturing and tooling engineers, craftsmen and assemblers, and the billions of dollars coughed up by the public. But the aura remained, as shown by how he was honored following his recent passing at 82 years. Perhaps there is a connection to be drawn from the naming of the first launch vehicles to carry astronauts into orbit after mythological heroic figures - Apollo, Atlas, Saturn and Titan.

  My interest in this subject was sparked following the recent publication of a commentary in Space News by former astronaut Walter Cunningham, in which, as a climate change denier, he claimed that he and others within the NASA community were winning the “war against global warming.” The arrogance and irresponsible nature of the commentary by someone who had had the extreme privilege of viewing this fragile planet from space during an Apollo mission begs the question of whether opinion by former astronauts should carry any special weight above that of other citizens. Then three other recent events, closely related; the fiftieth anniversary of the first American to orbit Earth by John Glenn, the forty-third anniversary of the first landing by humans on the moon and a month later the death of Neil Armstrong, the first to set foot there, prompted the question: Are astronauts ordinary people? At first glance, poring over the bios of the two hundred thirty-eight astronauts who have left the profession, one might reach that conclusion. Married, raising children, golfers, hunters, hikers, craftsmen, mountain climbers, pilots, cyclists, musicians.... even artists, all common to middle class America. End of story. Or is it? It might be interesting to dig a bit deeper. In this young profession that began with John Glenn’s Earth orbit flight in 1962, twenty percent are no longer alive.

Getting down to basics, what does it take to be an astronaut? It is someone in excellent physical condition who will carefully and faithfully follow prescribed directions.....someone who  can be depended upon not to panic in a bad or unexpected situation but immediately attend to it with sensible and sometimes innovative solutions.  As it happens, there is a vast pool of such experts in various fields, both men and women, where performance requirements are virtually the same and where enthusiasm about space exploration runs high.

             NASA’s requirements for application to the Astronaut corps are straightforward: a BS degree in engineering, bio-engineering, mathematics or the physical sciences; Three years of progressively advancing experience in the applicant’s chosen field. That requirement is lessened by one year with a Masters degree and does not apply if the applicant is a PhD, or if the applicant has 1000 hours of pilot-in-command experience with commercial or military jet aircraft. The applicant must meet basic requirements of 20/20 vision, be a citizen of the United States, blood pressure not over 140/90 and height between 62 and 75 inches. The applicant is subjected to interviews and medical examination. Success here leads to selection for the candidate training program, which lasts two years. The best of the graduates are then selected for the final intense training program, out of which astronauts are chosen and assigned to missions. After passing military water survival tests and achieving SCUBA proficiency in preparation for EVA training, astronaut training includes International Space Station systems, EVA skills, Robotics skills, Russian Language and Aircraft flight readiness.

            It stands to reason that NASA would have a preference for experienced pilots in its astronaut complement as they have already demonstrated the high level of skill needed to follow complex directions and to rapidly assess and take corrective action when something goes wrong. Following are four interesting events.

           

The Apollo flights were preceded by the Gemini program, a series of eight low Earth orbit flights to practice rendezvous and docking in space. A two-man crew was orbited in the Gemini capsule, somewhat larger that the preceding Mercury capsules. Separate flights orbited unmanned Agena spacecraft which were fitted with  a docking interface. On the eighth flight, crewed by Neil Armstrong and David Scott, the first U.S. docking operation was performed as planned, joining Gemini to the Agena spacecraft. Then suddenly the combined spacecraft began to spin. Picture trying to analyze a situation like this while spinning at ever more rapid speeds. Yet, Armstrong managed to stabilize the joined craft by activating the reentry control thrusters on Gemini. It was concluded that a roll thruster on Gemini had remained open, and confirmed by rapid depletion of thruster propellants. The mission was terminated and Gemini was returned to Earth in an emergency landing in the Pacific.

Apollo 13 was crewed by astronauts James Lovell, John Swigart and Fred Haise. My contention that astronauts may be ordinary people is buttressed by the fact that this was not the originally scheduled crew, who were bounced for reasons of lax attitude toward training, extra marital affairs and exposure to a communicable disease. Fred Haise was a replacement for Ken Mattingly, who had been exposed to German Measles seven days before flight. Mattingly played an important role in subsequent events for this hair-raising flight. Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970.  Fifty-six hours into the lunar flight the oxygen tank on the service module exploded, rendering the service module useless for providing utilities to the command module. The mission now was not a landing on the moon but how to get the astronauts safely back to Earth. With the limited provisions in the command module and lunar modules, it became an issue not only of a rapid reconstituting of flight mechanics, but of survival with limited supply of power, food and water, loss of cabin heat, and application of ingenuity under  extremely stressful conditions. A fine example of how humans can measure up to tough situations. Heroic? Not unless saving yourself can be termed heroic. Heroic is landing a disabled passenger aircraft in the Hudson River and saving its hundreds of passengers.

           

            Apollo 16, the fifth lunar landing mission, carried the second lunar rover, popularly known as the “moon buggy,” to enable exploration of extended territory. The rover was a two- passenger, four-wheel electrical drive vehicle built by the Boeing Company. Early in its use a fender extension broke when astronaut John Young bumped into it. No fixes were attempted, though astronauts reported dust covering everything and vehicle performance dropping off. We are in an age when people don’t fix their own cars anymore. But then again, some do. On Apollo 17 the fender extension broke again when Eugene Cernan accidentally struck it with a hammer handle. Repairs were attempted by taping the extension in place but it was lost after about an hour, the astronauts returning covered with moon dust.  Subsequently a fix was made with a lunar map, duct tape and a pair of clamps from the lunar module, which worked for the remainder of the mission. In this instance we see both clumsiness and innovation in play.

            Finally, the Skylab spacecraft that followed the Apollo lunar missions provides a spectacular example of how astronauts can function to save a mission gone badly awry.  Skylab was an orbital workshop that was built by using the Saturn V third stage as the basic structure and furnishing the inside with components to achieve America’s first space station. Skylab was launched into orbit on May 14, 1973 by a Saturn V that was left over from cancelled Apollo missions. Not long after liftoff a micrometeoroid shield whose function was to moderate the temperature inside the spacecraft broke away, In breaking off it partially deployed one of the spacecraft’s solar panels, which later in the flight was blown away by retro rocket fire from the second stage during separation. Once in orbit it was determined that the opposite array was entangled in debris and wouldn’t deploy. At that point the mission could have been aborted. A saving aspect was that some power was available from the Apollo Telescope Mount, attached to Skylab, when its solar arrays successfully deployed. Engineers took a couple of days to assess whether the spacecraft could be repaired and finally a three man crew, led by Charles Conrad, accompanied by Paul Weitz and Joseph Kerwin departed for Skylab with an assortment of tools and repair material. Arriving at the spacecraft, their first job was to fashion a shield, known as “the parasol” to take the place of the missing micrometeroid shield, which lowered the 100 deg F plus temperature inside the spacecraft to an acceptable level. Next they set about freeing the stuck solar array, finally getting it to deploy. Though still at lower power than hoped for, the station was able to complete its mission with two more visits by astronauts. The total occupied time for Skylab was 171 man-days.

If longevity is on your life agenda, you might not choose to be an astronaut. Thus far, for American astronauts, life expectancy turns out to be 52 years. Of two hundred thirty eight astronauts who have left the profession, forty-seven are deceased. One is tempted to compare with other professions where life expectancy is low, like logging, fishing and long distance trucking. An extrapolation (admittedly risky for so small a sample) reveals that flying to and operating in space is three to four times worse. Counting four lives lost in T-38 trainer crashes, 21 deaths occurred in the line of duty... seven crewmembers lost in each of the space shuttle accidents (Columbia and Challenger) and three in the Apollo command module fire on the Florida launch pad.  Eighteen deaths were from natural causes, of which five were from heart failure and the rest from different forms of cancer. The remaining eight deaths were from various causes, including plane crashes, auto, motorcycle and water ski accidents, one suicide and one death on Mt. Everest. The high rate of cancer in a group of humans presumably selected for extraordinarily good physical condition raises the question about whether space exposure has an influence.

            Experience thus far has shown that women are fully as capable as men in the astronaut occupation. There is little evidence that in the hands of men, performance is better. Yet, of the two hundred thirty eight astronauts who have left the field, only twenty seven were women. Before he became senator, John Glenn testified before Congress in an attempt to ban women from going into space. He failed, but what actually developed seems little more than a nod to the other sex by NASA administrators. It seems also that a course correction is advisable in selection of future astronaut complements.

            Where do retired astronauts go?  They are still young and most are obliged to find ways to make a living. The following information is more or less fluid, as occupations may change with changing opportunities. For example, astronaut Harrison Schmitt, whose single flight was on Apollo 17, logging 301 hours in space, took employment with NASA until 1975 when he left to run for United States Senator from New Mexico. He served a single six year  term and then returned to employment in academia, lecturing, consulting and other pursuits.  A geologist, Dr. Schmitt has recently aligned himself with climate change doubters like Walter Cunningham.

            It was no surprise to find that over fifty astronauts found employment at  companies that do business with the government. Only a few reached top level. Most were at vice-president, assistant vice-president, manager or director levels. That reminds one of the revolving door situation in Washington where staffers and legislators find jobs as lobbyists due to their insider connections. Twenty astronauts took employment in academia and a like number got jobs at various government agencies. Less than ten went into the medical field, where they had apparently had their original training.

            There seems to be not much desire to enter the political scene on the part of astronauts. . Besides Harrison Schmitt, only Jack Lousma and John Glenn sought careers in the United States Senate. Jack Lousma lost his bid to Carl Levin. John Glenn was elected Senator from Ohio in 1974 and served for four terms, retiring in 1999. Glenn was one of five senators caught up in the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal. His ambitions extended to a try for the presidency and two tries for a vice-presidency but none were not successful. In 2012 there are one or two ex-astronauts campaigning for spots in the House of Representatives.

            The remainder of retired astronauts entered various occupations that included consulting, lecturing, investing, writing, and start-up businesses. Some, like Buzz Aldrin and John Young, work as advocates for the space program. A few immodestly take every opportunity to preserve a strong public image. Others went in interesting directions: Apollo astronaut Alan Bean became a successful artist, specializing in space exploration art works. Apollo 15 Astronauts James Irwin and Charles Duke turned to religion. Duke entered missionary work and Irwin became an evangelical Minister. Irwin added to his fame by organizing two expeditions to Mt. Ararat to find Noah’s Ark. In the second attempt Irwin was injured and had to make the descent on a horse. Scott Parazinski (MD), veteran of five STS flights, was a mountain climber. On the second try he was the first astronaut to climb Mt. Everest, reaching the summit on May 20, 2009. Another astronaut, Karl D. Heinz, was not so fortunate. He died in the attempt when he contracted pulmonary edema after reaching an altitude of 21,000 feet. The story of Brian O’Leary is especially interesting. An astronomer and expert on physical properties of the Martian surface, he was appointed in 1967 to be part of the first crew for a manned Mars mission. He left NASA  a few months later when prospects of ever getting into space faded. From there he returned to academia, authored over a hundred papers and several books, and also held positions at the Energy Department and Science Applications International Corporation. In later years O’Leary stepped outside the bounds of conventional physics to pursue ideas on anti-gravity and free energy. He moved his base of operation to Ecuador from where he conducted workshops and continued to write and lecture. O’Leary died in 2011.

             

            Two former astronauts made it big in the corporate world, attaining CEO status with large companies. Frank Borman, veteran of Gemini missions and the first lunar orbital flight in Apollo  8, rose to be  CEO of Eastern Airlines. William Anders, also of Apollo 8, entered government service where he served as executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, followed by appointment to be first chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Upon leaving government service he spent several years in senior positions at General Electric and Textron. In 1990 he entered General Dynamics Corporation as Vice-Chair and a year later became Board Chairman and CEO. Anders presided over a major reconstitution of the conglomerate assembled in the 1950’s by John J. Hopkins, including sell-off of major divisions like Convair Ft. Worth and the Astronautics Division in San Diego. Anders left bitter feelings, when, after assuring soon-to-be-unemployed workers at the Astronautics Division that it would not be sold, executed a sale of the division to Lockheed Martin within months. Anders resigned in 1993.

           

            In retrospect, it was probably not entirely Anders’ doing. There is some opinion that he was directed to take these actions by the Department of Defense...... the “Military/Industrial Complex” at work.” Others believe that major shareholders were in the mood for a shakeup in corporate assets.  He was simply following orders. That’s what astronauts do.

Copyright © 2012

JIM'S CHAIR

     Thinking the other day about who were the finest people I ever met, I almost missed someone who ranks near the top of the list..... Jim, gentleman barber, resident barber for Convair, San Diego, and later, Astronautics Division, for most of his salaried career. I never met his wife, but she must be someone special too as together the couple raised four children who returned  a level of pride most parents hope for.

    It was a banner day when one got promoted to a perk level where you were privileged to visit the company barber. And Jim was special because you knew intuitively that he was a sympathetic listener. You could unload on him and know that it would go no further. It didn’t matter if you were thrice married, divorced, had something going on the side, a raving conservative, a starry eyed liberal or someone being undermined in the various maneuverings that are always in play in the heirarchy. Jim listened and commented just enough, always sympathetically. So you walked away with a haircut good enough for a wedding and feeling as good as if you had visited the local shrink and plunked down fifty bucks for an hour on the couch.

    When Jim retired from Astronautics a quarter century ago he established a private practice, “Jim’s Chair,” that got bumped from location to location in the Kearny Mesa area. His clientele from Astronautics and Convair followed him, so he didn’t have to look for customers. Only as a special favor would he take on someone recommended to him. Jim is an avid golfer, and Jim’s Chair got to be known as the only place in town where you can get a haircut and a golf lesson for ten bucks.  Still barbering at ninety years and still a great listener, I must think to tell him: “Jim, it’s too bad you are not a writer. Your book would be a best seller.”

NEW WORLD II

Why had the prophets missed this,
the long moment of the great awakening?

Almost too late, the phenomenon of selflessness
replaced the dominance of avarice and greed.

It was the suffering that did it,
and the unexpected winter of the great die-off.

Now we know immortality is a shared experience,
the thread that runs from generation to generation.

In these happy lands rockets and submarines
lie buried at the bottom of the ocean.

Cathedrals, temples and mosques have been dismantled
to make homes for the weary.

Mecca and places like it are archeological curiosities
scattered beneath  the desert sands.

The Vatican is preserved.
We have made it a museum for false gods.

The labyrinths of Mars have revealed
the tenacity and fragility of life.

The internet has brought all people together.
Notions of class have been erased.

Evenings, when work is done,
poets read their works to tell how things are.

Musicians arrive, unpack their instruments
and everyone dances.

©September, 2012

NONSENSE AND SENSE (in that order)

    As it is sometimes said, “maybe it’s the season.” It does seem, doesn’t it, that in an election year, judging from some statements, the general level of intelligence is not what we had hoped it is. “Keep your government hands off my Medicare” is a gem. Another, from a highly placed figure is “Corporations are people” (yeah, and bankruptcies are abortions). Then there is “Islam is not a  religion.” And for posterity, I’m sure, is the comment plaintively uttered to a reporter by a woman who must have married up beyond her wildest dreams. The reporter was checking out the wealthy occupants of fine automobiles that were lined up for a recent Romney gala fund raiser: “The little people. They just don’t understand.”
   
    Since my particular field is rocketry and anything associated with it, my pet peeve centers on comments that followed published commentaries on NASA’s Curiosity mission, to the effect that all that money ($2.6 billion) ought to have been spent here, on this planet, for more sensible things. It is as if they believe Martians are now happily tearing off check stubs.  Admittedly, it can’t be argued that disparaging comments about space exploration has anything  to do with the election year. They have been around for some time, and never seem to cease.

    Actually, the rover that now sits on Mars is dirt cheap. The raw materials in the 2,000 pound Rover  cost three dollars a pound, give or take a few quarters. The same goes for the  75,000 pounds or so of material in the rockets that got the rover to Mars.  On further thought,  the material is not worth anything, as the value I quoted amounts to what it took to mine, refine and process the materials from which the rover and rockets were built. Labor and businesses benefited.

    Need an example? That $30,000  Mustang you have your eye on costs ten dollars a pound. About three dollars a pound is in material. The rest is labor and benefits paid  to workers by Ford and its parts suppliers, overhead, profit to Ford,  shipping, processing by the dealer, dealer overhead and profit.

    So what happened to the 2.82 billion dollars spent so far on the Curiosity mission? It stayed here, distributed almost entirely in paychecks to the scientists, engineers, technicians and skilled fabricators who designed, built and implemented the Curiosity venture. That money wasn’t squirreled away in the Cayman Islands. It was mostly spent. A substantial chunk went back to the government. The remainder  found its way to builders, the local mechanic, the hair dresser and barber, the local bookstore, and countless other places, maybe even ballet lessons. You get the idea.Those people prospered too, and also sent money back to Washington. And you can bet that some who worked on the project already have underway spinoff ventures that take advantage of some of the technology that was developed in the program. It’s win-win from every aspect, with the bonus of ultimately learning more about our origins through space exploration.

    There are various ways in which the government can stimulate the economy, but for payoff, there is nothing that can match investments in technology. If you doubt this, think about the multi-hundred billion dollar business that has grown from NASA  and Department of Defense early communications satellites.

VOTER FRAUD FRAUD

    When something is statistically acceptable and legislators use their positions to mess with it, something else must be afoot. That seems to be the case with voter fraud legislation. Compellingly suspicious is that the origin of legislation is entirely the work of one political party. Absolutely revealing is the crowing on the part of a senior Republican in Pennsylvania that the passage of voter fraud legislation will win that state for Governor Romney.
    Never mind that studies of voter fraud have all revealed that it is extremely rare. And for good reason. A single vote on the part of an individual can hardly affect an election and the risk is five years in prison and $10,000 fine. How much easier and safer it would be to get a member of the opposition drunk so that person’s vote doesn’t get recorded. Enough studies have been made to put this subject to bed, yet it has become a major, troubling issue in this campaign year. A representative paper by the Brennan Center of Justice can be found on:

www.brennancenterofjustice.org/content/resource/policy-brief-on-the-truth-about-voter-fraud

    The object, of course by the perpetrators (one cannot honestly say legislators) is to cut out of the voting population a segment that can normally be counted on to vote for the opposition. The method is to require all voters to furnish state issued photo i.d. at the voting sites.  Of course a driver’s license will do. So there are troglodytes among us who say “What’s the big deal? Everyone has a driver’s license.” Not so. There are millions who don’t, and requiring those voters to provide a photo i.d. is implicitly illegal in that it costs money to get an i.d. as well as imposing an unnecessary hardship; money for transportation and money for the i.d. That by any definition is a targeted poll tax.

    Many schemes are in play to affect voter outcome. A notorious one, for which voting administrators ought to be prosecuted, is supplying insufficient voting machines in areas that have high opposition voting populations. Discouraging voting by making people wait in lines for hours is patently a form of voter fraud practiced by some in state governments.

    But the most shameful is voter fraud fraud that is practiced by legislators.They know that voter fraud is virtually non-existent. They cannot back their bills with data.  Their intent is transparent. They know the laws will ultimately be declared illegal, but they are doing it anyway, and the Republican governors of those states where bills have been passed, to their eternal disgrace, are signing on.

    Much of the mischief is arguably traceable to Senator Mitch McConnell’s statement on the Senate floor at the onset of this administration that the main goal of the Republicans is to ensure that Barack Obama doesn’t get another term. The record of minority performance in the Senate ensuing months and years, and in the House since Republicans gained the majority shows that he surely meant it, what with kneecapping the president at every turn with  endless filibusters, and outright blocking of needed legislation, such as  the Jobs Bill.  But that was only one facet of the “War against Obama.” Voter fraud, the astonishing birther claims that never go away, the hypnotizing House obsession with women’s rights, are all facets of McConnell’s astonishingly provocative vow, put into practice.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE CHALLENGE FOR HUMANS

   
                    


    Chalk up a big one for  NASA and the  Space Exploration Program. The discovery and confirmation that Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, has a high methane component, even lakes of it, is a strong indicator that methane had a high presence in the formation of the rest of the solar system and  probably was heavily involved in Earth’s evolution.  A theory yet to be proven, but it is plausible that methane occurs not only as a component of biomass as represented by coal and oil, but also as a direct deposit from the original, dense primordial soup that enveloped Earth long before life appeared. It also contained carbon dioxide, water vapor, ammonia, elemental hydrogen and nitrogen in massive quantity and other gasses in smaller amounts. 
        
    As yet, there were no oceans. That came later as temperatures moderated, water vapor condensed, and energy from sunlight and lightning spurred the formation of more complex molecules ....some eventually to become self replicating and characterized by the phenomenon we call life. Thus began an incredible and prodigious global biochemical reaction that converted most of the carbon into biomass, thinned and modified the atmosphere to its present content of mostly 80% nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen, and helped to form the oceans.

    If one takes into account the estimated water in the world, about 2 exp.21 pounds, an easy calculation shows that terrestrial pressure of the early gaseous envelope was in the hundreds of atmospheres. As the earth cooled and a crust formed and cooled, fissures and voids appeared, which would have immediately been filled with “soup.”  Further earth movement sealed it in for the ages. That much of it is still there is evident in volcanic eruptions where carbon dioxide content may be as high as 40 %, accompanied by other gasses. A second clue is appearance of methane in places where its presence can’t be explained by biomass processes, since there is no biomass in the vicinity.  For instance, methane appears dissolved in hot brine in high concentrations. Some efforts are already underway for recovery in places where it is not too difficult to gain access. An added benefit is application of the hot brine to geothermal energy extraction. In the late seventies, remembered for the oil crisis during the Carter administration, there appeared an article in the Oil and Gas Journal describing the discovery of an enormous hot brine deposit miles under Texas and Louisiana that is saturated with methane. The author estimated that there is enough methane in that single deposit to serve the nation’s energy needs for the next 2500 years. Quick conclusion: methane is everywhere, in quantities that would serve Earth’s energy needs for thousands of years. That is, if there were not a down side.     
   
    In an upcoming book, UC Berkeley physicist Richard Muller, a confirmed climate change denier for many years, has reversed himself after conducting a detailed study of all the data, assisted by dozens of scientists, funded by a grant from the Koch brothers. He concludes now  that climate change is real, human caused, and there is an urgent need to make corrective changes in the energy generation industry. His immediate recommendation is to convert rapidly from coal to methane to generate  electricity, reducing emissions by about two thirds.  Earth’s natural absorption systems can handle about 50% of current carbon dioxide emissions.  But if a conversion  to methane, along with introduction of other “green” renewables, doesn’t abate the other 50%, climate warming will continue, only at a slower rate.

    Another recently published book by Ozzie Zehmer, also of UC Berkeley, titled “Green Illusions,” does not take issue with the subject of global warming, but dwells instead on the various  methods of generating energy claiming to be renewable, with the object of revealing whether they are beneficial,  have a negative effect, or are simply cosmetic.  It turns out that some, like production of ethanol from corn, are strongly negative (In a recent posting here, titled “Coal Burning Electric Cars,” I also wrote about the dubious benefit of electric cars on which batteries are charged  from coal burning power plants).

    At best, the suggestions made by Richard Muller would buy time, given the rate at which energy consumption is growing globally. The final solutions, restoring Earth’s “breathing” to the situation in which natural absorption processes  maintain an equillibrium, will require innovation on many fronts, including gains in efficiency, conservation, and containing urban sprawl to reduce transportation needs. 

    While nuclear power is looked upon unfavorably by many people, it may be a significant part of the final answer. The United States has more nuclear power plants in operation than any other nation.... around one hundred twenty. They generate nearly 20 % of our electrical energy. France generates 80 % of its electrical energy in nuclear plants; the remainder mostly “green.”
Still, the existing  plants, while technologically formidable achievements, must be considered first generation technology. Most are over forty years old. Some are operating beyond their scheduled lifetimes.The last one to be built in the United States came on-line in the nineties.  Historically, though, there have been no fatalities in the United States. Disasters at Chernobyl and more recently in Japan after the tsunami have been attributed to operator error and aging equipment.  Industry is capable of producing a next generation power plant.... more efficient and safer, by employing advanced designs, using materials not previously available in the original builds, and welding advancements. Operator error can be largely eliminated with a high level of automation, including the quadruple redundancey that is commonly employed in spacecraft design.  Away down the road there is the possibility of continuous fusion power if the technology can be mastered. Perhaps sooner if pulse fusion is discovered to be easier to achieve.   

    So interesting.... discover something useful on a moon a gazillion miles away and realize that the same events that got it there also placed it everywhere you walk, deep underground but nevertheless accessible. Of itself, it might not solve our emerging, serious problem, but it could go a long ways as a stopgap while permanent solutions are found and implemented. This also reaffirms that space exploration is incredibly important. What it can teach us can be quite surprising, and could return every penny ever spent.