The Summons. By John Grisham.
I picked it up at the airport. I read it in about two hours, on the plane. It passed the time. Now, I'm putting it into my "to be given away" pile.
Like most computer nerds my age, I remember fondly getting up early in the morning to watch Columbia launch for the first time. I was born too late to remember any of the Apollo missions, so this was the first human launch I remember.
So I was saddened at the loss of Columbia this last Saturday. I flashed back to the loss of Challenger in a launch accident. I learned about it when I got to school; a kid named Rich told me and I didn't believe him at first.
Over the last few days, though, I've come to agree with the naysayers in the media calling for an end to the Shuttle program. It's become nothing more than a giant pork and public relations project. The Shuttle does no science that couldn't be done in unmanned craft. The heavy lifting it does in support of the International Space Station could be done more cheaply and safely by conventional disposable rockets. The transport of humans to orbit and back could be done by smaller and simpler craft that didn't have to do cargo duty as well. And because they would be simpler, they would also be safer.
And that would free up billions of dollars for actual science. We could send three Mars Landers for the cost of a single shuttle flight. Probes to Titan, Europa, Venus. Polar orbits around the Sun. Telescopes at the Lagrange points. All projects with real things to tell us about the universe.
I don't mean any disrespect to the now seventeen astronauts who have died in the American space program (Apollo I, Challenger, and Columbia). Their commitment and dedication is something I can only aspire to. And I am as romantic as anyone about the notion of manned exploration of space.
But some rational judgement has to come to bear sometime. So many politically connected companies have a vested interest in Shuttle flights continuing that our elected leaders have lost the ability to say "no".
Sadly, our current leaders don't have it in them to change that.
Other naysayers:
Gregg Easterbrook, twenty-three years ago and this week.