The most powerful rocket ever built blasted off from
its launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas, recently. News reports generally dismissed
the endeavor as a failure since the rocket blew up several minutes after takeoff,
even though the launch was a test and deemed at least partially successful by
those who made it possible. Reports were also quick to note that the launch “rocked
the earth and kicked up a billowing cloud of dust and debris,
shaking homes and raining down brown grime for miles.”
One report chronicled the
experience of Sharon Almaguer, who, at the time of the launch, was at home with
her 80-year-old mother. Ms. Almaguer purportedly said of the launch: “It was
truly terrifying.” Really? You knew the launch was imminent. How do you
fare in a thunderstorm?
Another report breathlessly stated: “In Port Isabel,
a city about six miles northwest where at least one window shattered, residents
were alarmed.” One window in one home near the launch site
shattered? Oh, the humanity! At least the window wasn’t broken in the
traditional way-- by a baseball launched from a kid’s baseball bat. Funny, I
don’t recall the media obsessing over the consequences of the launch of Apollo
11. (“One giant leap for mankind, one incredibly small price to pay.”)
And I’m sure Elon would pay
to replace the window, if asked.
A dnyuz.com article worried that companies like
SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin are planning to increase the number of
rocket launches in the future, while noting that “new research” has “shown just how damaging this
trend is to the environment.”
Dr. Eloise Marais, an Associate Professor in
Physical Geography, said of the study she and Research Fellow Dr. Robert Ryan
conducted: "We
calculated air pollutant emissions from rocket launches in 2019 and
extrapolated what we think a potential future space tourism industry will look
like based on the companies that launched missions last year. Then we incorporated these
emissions in a 3D model that represents the complex physical and chemical
processes taking place in the atmosphere so that we could calculate their effects on climate."
Their conclusion? That the climate effect of soot
from rocket launches is hundreds of times more damaging than earthbound
sources.
Meaning? To paraphrase an old Nike slogan: “Just Don’t
Do It.”
This kind of thinking is why
we can’t— or won’t-- accomplish great things anymore. And why China will soon
leave us in the dust, atmospheric or otherwise. To the detriment of the
freedom-loving world.
Reach for the stars?
No. Reach for your facemask
and stay inside. The only space we care to explore anymore is our safe one.
For centuries Americans
longed for the “frontier.” Millions risked everything to get there, going west
by covered wagon, all of there earthly belongings with them. Now too many long
for a permanent vacation, universal basic income, and someone from the
government to promise them cradle-to-grave care. And tuck them into bed at
night.
Turn out the lights. The
party’s over.
“The final frontier?” If “progressives”
have their way, it likely won’t be space.
Unless it’s the space under
our beds.