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Subject: Eleven days from Mars - Part 2
Time: 9:03:00 AM EDT
Author: stuartatk
I was convinced of this fact when I was faced with a very self-righteous individual who had come along to one of my Outreach talks. I figured that everyone was there because they were interested in the subject (not me, ha!) and that I’d effectively be ‘preaching to the converted’. Not so. This guy had clearly just come along to preach that space exploration was an extravagant luxury, that we should spend all the money spent on “rockets and that stuff” here on Earth, to help the poor, etc. As he told me all this I saw he was wearing a replica football (soccer, to US readers) shirt. That alone must have cost him £40 if not £50, but I let that point go. I had more ammunition to use.
I asked him which team he supported – already knowing the answer thanks to the shirt, of course – and when he told me, proudly, I hit him with a broadside. All cannons. Smoke everywhere.
Had he ever written to his club protesting, I asked him, that some of the footballers in his team were paid over £100,000 a week when there children starving in Africa? Had he ever declared in front of his fellow fans how immoral it was to buy a new player for millions of pounds when there were babies dying of AIDS in his own country? Had he ever told a program seller at a game that no, he wouldn’t buy one, not when there were young girls on the streets of London having to sell their bodies because they had no money for food? Had he cancelled his subscription to satellite TV because he thought the money would be better spent paying for anti-malaria drugs for people in Bangladesh?
Silence. A sputtering, outraged, embarrassed silence, admittedly, but a silence nonetheless.
And I know that’s not a very “PC” view to take, but I have finally got sick of being lectured about this by people who have no right to lecture me, you know?
And if they're not a sports fan? Plan B: the movies.
I wouldn’t swear to it, of course, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume that almost everyone who shouts out against the cost of space exploration has been to a cinema to watch a film, or at least hired one from their local video store or library, in the past year, and not given a moment’s thought to the money it cost to make that film. Films are a part of our daily lives, we just take them for granted, and enjoy watching them. That’s not a crime, of course, a night at the flicks – or curled up on your sofa with a DVD and a bottle of wine – is one of life’s pleasures, but while enjoying it none of us stops and thinks about how much the movie we’re watching cost to film. But if you take a moment to research the figures you discover we’re talking a quite staggering amount of money. I know most of those movies actually MAKE money, but that money doesn’t go to “good causes”, it goes towards making MORE MOVIES, and paying Hollywood stars to be IN those movies.
You ready for some figures? You might want to sit down…
How much do you think it cost New Line to make RUSH HOUR 3? Answer: $180 MILLION. SPIDER MAN 3 cost $258m, making it the most expensive move made to date (according to my figures here). That makes TITANIC’s bill of $200m look quite modest, but it did make almost $2bn in return, so a good investment in that case.
You want to talk about throwing money away? Then don’t use space missions that develop terrestrial technology and add to mankind’s knowledge as an example, not when the “comedy” EVAN ALMIGHTY cost Universal $175m, but only made $173m back, and Paramount coughed up $145m for SAHARA and only got $121m back…
Let me stress here that I’m not against the movie industry. I’m a huge movie fan, love them, devour them. I’m just pointing out that the people who tell me that money spent on space is wasted are the same people who don’t care that it cost a fortune to make a movie that entertained – or bored – them for just two hours.
So, if anyone tells me that Phoenix is a “waste of money”, that the money it cost would have been better spent here on Earth, they’d better be ready to prove to me that they have never bought a Big Mac, didn’t go to watch any of the LORD OF THE RINGS movies and have never bought a can of tuna chunks in jelly for their cat, because otherwise they’ve had chances to give money to all those good causes they want the space program to pay for but didn’t, and they’re in no position to criticise.
But back to Phoenix, and as I sit here writing this the “Phoenix Countdown Clock” I have open in a browser window says there just eleven days and eleven hours to go until landing. I can’t wait, even though it will mean a loooong night for me and other space enthusiasts on this side of the planet, because the landing occurs around midnight our time and the first pictures won’t come in until almost 2am next morning. I don’t care, I’ll still be here, sat at my PC. I’ve done it before. The MER landings happened in the "wee small hours" for us here in the UK, and when Spirit landed I didn't get ANY sleep that night - I couldn't even get up early - because the previous evening I was a guest on BBC Radio 5 Live, talking about the missions from a space enthusiast's point of view, a member of a phone in panel which also included a well-known Brit science writer and a member of the MER team (wish I could remember who now!!!) who was interviewed over the phone. I had to travel through to Carlisle (30 miles away), get let into the studio by a producer then sit on my own in an automated studio and just talk into a mic for an hour, on and off, contributing to the discussion. That discussion was meant to be about the scientific return expected from the rovers, but because the radio presenter was a complete frakking idiot it turned into one of those "is space exploration really worth it?" debates, with Mr and Mrs Angrys calling in to pour scorn on space and insist the money should be better spent elsewhere. Well, pretty soon our reasonable voices were being drowned out, as the presenter encouraged more "debate", and by the time the show finished it was just a waste of time, and in the taxi on the way home I was pretty fed up...
... then I sat at my computer, fired up NASA TV - then on dial-up, so the RealPlayer screen was a tiny, shuddering, constantly re-buffering mess of pixels and fractals - and sat back to watch the landing of Spirit. And I will never, even if I live to be a million, forget the drama and excitement and horror of those next few hours... When the control room erupted into cheers and whoops, and people started punching the air and slapping backs I literally burst into tears, it was so emotional. I'd loved Mars for as long as I could remember, and finally, FINALLY, I was going to be able to participate in a mission. It was all the sweeter because, days earlier, Beagle - which we all had such high hopes for - had simply vanished, and we were all numb with disbelief about that... but we were back on Mars, and when I finally left the computer, and walked out into the sunlight, I was absolutely wrung out but shaking with relief and excitement...
And in just 11 days and 11 hours I’ll put myself through it all over again.
I can’t wait…!
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5/15/08 5:59 PM