PLEASE NOTE:
*
CCNet 68/2002 - 13 June 2002
----------------------------
"Today
astronomers said they have traced the paths of a handful of
these fragments back to their origin, piecing together what
is now the most
well documented and recent example of asteroid destruction
and creation.
The work will provide a wealth of new information about
rocks from space
and the overall development of the solar system, including Earth.
It could
also help scientists model what would happen if they ever try to
blow up an
asteroid that is heading toward our planet.
--Robert Roy Britt, Space.com, 12 June 2002
"I believe that,
consciously or unconsciously, interest in space
societies is as high as it is because their future in
many ways mirrors
our own. Many characteristics of space societies, such as strong
dependence
on advanced technology, problems with maintaining environmental
quality, the
need for people to work together under stress, and individuals'
strong
dependence upon their society for basic necessities such as food
and water,
are simply amplified images of characteristics already present,
and growing,
in our own society. This is a good reason for being interested in
space
societies, since by studying their problems we gain a
window into our
future on Earth."
--Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Tech Central Station, 12 June 2002
(1) RECENT CRASH CREATED YOUNGEST KNOWN ASTEROID FAMILY
Space.com, 12 June 2002
(2) FRAGMENTS IN SPACE TRACED BACK TO ANCIENT ASTEROID COLLISION
San Diego Union Tribune, 12 June 2002
(3) THE RECENT BREAKUP OF AN ASTEROID IN THE MAIN-BELT REGION
Nature 417, 720 - 771 (2002)
(4) NASA'S CONTOUR MISSION GETS TO THE "HEART" OF COMET
DIVERSITY
NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
(5) PLANETARY SOCIETY OF JAPAN WILL SEND NAMES TO ASTEROID
The Planetary Society < tps@planetary.org
(6) FREE LECTURES LINK SPACE ROCKS AND EARTH LIFE
Ron Baalke < baalke@jpl.nasa.gov
(7) WE THE PEOPLE OF MARS .... Tech Central Station, 12 June 2002
============
(1) RECENT CRASH CREATED YOUNGEST KNOWN ASTEROID FAMILY
>From Space.com, 12 June 2002
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/asteroid_collision_020612.html
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
A few million years ago, two asteroids collided in interplanetary
space. The
smaller, aggressor rock was pulverized to dust as it shattered
the larger
target rock into millions of small and large fragments which were
violently
dispersed in all sorts of new directions.
Today astronomers said they have traced the paths of a handful of
these
fragments back to their origin, piecing together what is now the
most well
documented and recent example of asteroid destruction and
creation. The work
will provide a wealth of new information about rocks from space
and the
overall development of the solar system, including Earth.
It could also help scientists model what would happen if they
ever try to
blow up an asteroid that is heading toward our planet.
Fresh faces
Asteroids were originally formed more than 4 billion years ago,
during a
chaotic time when the planets developed around a new Sun.
Since then most of them -- including the handful that have been
visited by
spacecraft -- have undergone multiple impacts and are mere
vestiges of their
parent bodies. Some are piles of rubble, the result of many
impacts. Most
are scarred and pitted, their courses altered many times over,
their origins
difficult to trace.
About 20 asteroid families, however, were created recently enough
to be
identified as having common origins.
Now David Nesvorny and his colleagues at the Southwest Research
Institute
(SwRI) have identified 39 known asteroids as debris from a
collision that
took place practically yesterday in the history of the solar
system. These
new creations are expected to be largely unaltered since their
violent
generation just 5.8 million years ago.
The largest remnant is an asteroid named Karin, roughly 12.5
miles wide (20
kilometers). The cluster of boulders, which all exhibit similar
composition,
has now been given the same name.
The Karin cluster was born when an asteroid estimated to be 1.9
miles wide
(3 kilometers) slammed into a 16-mile-wide (25 kilometers) rock
at about
11,180 mph (5 km/s), Nesvorny explained. The target rock was 600
times more
massive than the smaller one.
At least hundreds and perhaps thousands of fragments larger than
0.62 miles
(1 kilometer) were produced, Nesvorny said. An asteroid this
large could
cause a global catastrophe if it met up with Earth. The collision
also
generated up to 100 million fragments as big as a football field,
he said.
Such rocks could destroy a city. Preliminary observations also
found space
dust that appears to be associated with the crash.
The results will be published in the June 13 issue of the journal
Nature.
Glimpsing our past and future
University of Maryland researcher Derek Richardson, who was not
involved in
the study, said it offers "unprecedented insight into the
dynamics of
asteroid collisions -- and hence into how the planets of the
solar system
formed." Here's why:
Earth and the other rocky planets had humble beginnings as rocks,
essentially asteroids that grew by gentle collisions to become
planets
shortly after the Sun was born.
Back in those days, before Jupiter was fully formed, asteroid
collisions
were more frequent. They also tended to be gentler, however,
because most of
the material was orbiting the nascent Sun in the same direction.
Rocks could
join forces and grow into larger objects, eventually able to
absorb almost
any punch and continue on as a planet.
When Jupiter evolved into the massive object it is now, it began
to fling
asteroids on wilder courses, thereby generating more catastrophic
collisions. What had been a freeway with well-designed onramps
that led to
mild fender benders gained intersections with no stop lights that
forced
some serious crackups.
The more violent collisions put a lid on further planet formation
among all
but the most stout objects -- the four that became Mercury,
Venus, Earth and
Mars.
[Most astronomers believe a Mars-sized object once hit Earth. The
result?
Our Moon was forged during 24 hours of chaos. And yet Earth had
enough bulk
to hang in there.]
Richardson, who wrote a review that is also published in Nature,
said the
Karin cluster "will no doubt be the focus of attention for
the asteroid
community for some time" and is a compelling target for a
space mission.
Asteroids as small as Karin cannot be photographed or studied in
detail any
other way.
Because the family-building crash occurred relatively recently,
Richardson
said, "many erosional and weathering processes thought to
occur on asteroid
surfaces may not have had time to erase the tell-tale signatures
of the
break-up event."
The Bruce Willis factor
The cluster could also serve as a laboratory for scientists bent
on blowing
up space rocks that might threaten Earth.
Most asteroids orbit the Sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Astronomers
already knew the objects sometimes collide and send fragments on
new
trajectories around the Sun. A few fragments, large and small,
can be
gravitationally booted (by Jupiter) or lured (by the Sun) into
the inner
solar system where they cross the path of Earth's orbit.
That's when they become dangerous, of course.
Some researchers have suggested that if an asteroid is ever found
to be on a
collision course with our planet, a bomb or missile might be used
to destroy
or deflect it. But since the idea hasn't been tested, no one
knows how an
asteroid might come apart. It's possible that the fragments would
end up
doing more harm than a single object, experts say.
"This event may teach us about how asteroid material breaks
up when an
energetic impact and explosion occurs," Nesvorny said.
The study team also included William F. Bottke Jr, Luke Dones
& Harold F.
Levison, all of the SwRI, which is in Boulder, Colorado.
Copyright 2002, Space.com
============
(2) FRAGMENTS IN SPACE TRACED BACK TO ANCIENT ASTEROID COLLISION
>From San Diego Union Tribune, 12 June 2002
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/science/20020612-1424-asteroidcollision.html
By Mark Evans
ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 12, 2002
Scientists have identified dozens of asteroids as remnants of a
larger space
rock that was smashed apart a relatively recent 5.8 million years
ago - a
finding that could yield clues to how to destroy an asteroid
headed toward
Earth.
The original asteroid - calculated to be about 15 miles in
diameter - was
struck by a smaller object in catastrophic collision, said
astronomer David
Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
The resulting 39 fragments - each between 1.2 miles to 11.8 miles
in
diameter - remain between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars,
Nesvorny said.
The rocks could yield insights into the dynamics of space
collisions, said
Nesvorny, who reported the findings in Thursday's issue of the
journal
Nature.
"Other collisions we know about are old - billions of years
old - so we
can't see exactly what happened later. This one happened very
recently - and
what we see is a very pristine situation," he said.
Moreover, he said, the finding could lead to greater
understanding of the
early solar system, since asteroid collisions are believed to
have
contributed to the formation of planets.
It also may be possible to figure out exactly how the asteroid
broke apart.
That, in turn, might provide clues to whether a nuclear blast or
other
brute-force means could be used to stop an asteroid on a
collision course
with Earth, he said.
"You may learn what happen when a body of this size breaks
up. How would it
be possible to destroy it - by explosion on its surface or
something else?"
he said.
In an accompanying commentary, astronomer Derek Richardson of the
University
of Maryland said the study offers unprecedented insight into the
physics of
collisions in space, and marks the first time an asteroid
collision has been
accurately dated.
© Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
==========
(3) THE RECENT BREAKUP OF AN ASTEROID IN THE MAIN-BELT REGION
>From Nature 417, 720 - 771 (2002)
DAVID NESVORNÝ, WILLIAM F. BOTTKE JR, LUKE DONES & HAROLD F.
LEVISON
Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut St, Suite 426, Boulder,
Colorado 80302, USA
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to
D.N.
(e-mail: davidn@boulder.swri.edu).
The present population of asteroids in the main belt is largely
the result
of many past collisions. Ideally, the asteroid fragments
resulting from each
impact event could help us understand the large-scale collisions
that shaped
the planets during early epochs. Most
known asteroid fragment families, however, are very old and have
therefore
undergone significant collisional and dynamical evolution since
their
formation. This evolution has masked the properties of the
original
collisions. Here we report the discovery of a family of asteroids
that
formed in a disruption event only 5.8 0.2 million years
ago, and which has
subsequently undergone little dynamical and collisional
evolution. We
identified 39 fragments, two of which are large and comparable in
size
(diameters of 19 and 14 km), with the remainder exhibiting a
continuum of
sizes in the range 2-7 km. The low measured ejection velocities
suggest that
gravitational re-accumulation after a collision may be a common
feature of
asteroid evolution. Moreover, these data can be used to check
numerical
models of larger-scale collisions. Nature © Macmillan Publishers
Ltd 2002
============
(4) NASA'S CONTOUR MISSION GETS TO THE "HEART" OF COMET
DIVERSITY
>From NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
Donald Savage
Headquarters,
Washington
June 12, 2002
(Phone: 202/358-1754)
Michael Buckley
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
Laurel, MD
(Phone: 240/228-7536)
RELEASE: 02-110
NASA'S CONTOUR MISSION GETS TO THE "HEART" OF COMET
DIVERSITY
Set to visit and study at least two comets, NASA's Comet Nucleus
Tour
(CONTOUR) should provide the first detailed look at the
differences between
these primitive building blocks of the solar system, and answer
questions
about how comets act and evolve.
CONTOUR is scheduled to lift-off from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station,
Fla., on a three-stage Boeing Delta II expendable launch vehicle
during a
25-day launch window that opens July 1 at 2:56 a.m. (EDT). The
spacecraft
will orbit Earth until Aug. 15, when it should fire its main
engine and
enter a comet-chasing orbit around the sun.
CONTOUR's flexible four-year mission plan includes encounters
with comets
Encke, Nov.12, 2003, and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, June 19, 2006.
CONTOUR will
examine each comet's "heart," or nucleus, which
scientists believe is a
chunk of ice and rock, often just a few kilometers across and
hidden from
Earth-based telescopes beneath a dusty atmosphere and long tail.
"The CONTOUR mission will be NASA's second mission dedicated
solely to
exploring these largely unknown members of our solar
system," said Dr.
Colleen Hartman, Director of the Solar System Exploration
Division at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "CONTOUR joins our other
operating mission,
Stardust, which is on its way to bring a sample of a comet back
to Earth,
and Deep Impact will launch next year. These missions all help us
find
answers to the fundamental questions of how our planet may have
formed and
evolved, and how life may have begun on Earth and perhaps
elsewhere in the
Universe."
The 8-sided solar-powered craft will fly as close as 100
kilometers (62
miles) to each nucleus, at top speeds that could cover the 56
kilometers
between Washington and Baltimore in two seconds. A five-layer
dust shield of
heavy Nextel and Kevlar fabric protects the compact probe from
comet dust
and debris.
"Comets are the solar system's smallest bodies, but among
its biggest
mysteries," said Dr. Joseph Veverka, CONTOUR's principal
investigator from
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y "We believe they hold the
most primitive
materials in the solar system and that they played a role in
shaping some of
the planets, but we really have more ideas about comets than
facts. CONTOUR
will change that by coming closer to a comet nucleus than any
spacecraft
ever has before and gathering detailed, comparative data on these
dynamic objects."
CONTOUR's four scientific instruments will take pictures and
measure the
chemical makeup of the nuclei while analyzing the surrounding
gases and
dust. Its main camera, the CONTOUR Remote Imager/Spectrograph
(CRISP), will
snap high-resolution digital images showing car-sized rocks and
other
features on the nucleus as small as 4 meters (about 13 feet)
across. CRISP
will also search for chemical "fingerprints" on the
surface, which would
provide the first hard evidence of comet nuclei composition.
The targets were selected because of their diversity and relative
closeness
to Earth during encounter time -- less than 50 million kilometers
(31
million miles) --allowing astronomers to make observations during
the
encounters. Encke has been seen from Earth more than any other
comet; it's
an "old" body that gives off relatively little gas and
dust but remains more
active than scientists expect for a comet that has passed close
to the sun
thousands of times. Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, on the other hand,
was
discovered just 70 years ago and recently split into several
pieces,
intriguing scientists with hopes that CONTOUR might see fresh,
unaltered
surfaces and materials from inside the comet.
"The key to the CONTOUR mission is to visit a diverse range
of comets, from
an evolved comet such as Encke, to a younger comet like SW3 or
even a new
comet never seen in this part of the solar system," said
Mary C. Chiu,
CONTOUR project manager at The Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics
Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Md. "Our mission plan gives us
that flexibility."
CONTOUR's orbit loops around the sun and back to Earth for annual
"gravity
swings" toward its targets; these maneuvers refine or revise
CONTOUR's
trajectory and help it reach several comets without using much
fuel. CONTOUR
will cruise unattended between comet encounters and Earth
swingbys in a
spin-stabilized "hibernation" mode, helping the mission
reduce operations
and communications costs.
The $159 million CONTOUR is the sixth mission in NASA's Discovery
Program of
lower cost, scientifically focused exploration projects. APL
manages the
mission, built the spacecraft and its two cameras. NASA's Goddard
Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., provided CONTOUR's neutral gas/ion
mass
spectrometer and von Hoerner & Sulger, GmbH, Schwetzingen,
Germany, built
the dust analyzer. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., will
provide navigation and Deep Space Network (DSN) support.
Additional information about CONTOUR is available on the
web at:
http://www.contour2002.org
=============
(5) PLANETARY SOCIETY OF JAPAN WILL SEND NAMES TO ASTEROID
>From The Planetary Society <tps@planetary.org>
NEWS RELEASE
The Planetary Society
65 N. Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 (626) 793-5100 Fax
(626)
793-5528 E-mail: tps@planetary.org
Web: http://planetary.org
For Immediate Release: June 11, 2002
Contact: Susan Lendroth
The Planetary Society of Japan (TPS/J) has launched a worldwide
campaign to
deliver several hundred thousand names to an asteroid on MUSES-C,
the first
sample return mission to an asteroid. Those interested in sending
their
names must hurry - the deadline for submissions is July 5, 2002.
TPS/J is
affiliated with The Planetary Society.
Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, ISAS, will
launch the
MUSES-C spacecraft in November or December, 2002. Its destination
is
Asteroid 1998SF36, which is about 700m x 300m in size.
TPS/J has already collected over 160,000 names in a campaign
promoted in
Japan with the theme,"Let's fly to meet your star
prince," an allusion to
the title character in Saint-Exupery's famous story, "The
Little Prince."
The Little Prince makes his home on an asteroid.
"The Planetary Society maintains close ties with The
Planetary Society of
Japan and strongly supports the effort to involve the public in
the MUSES-C
Mission," said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The
Planetary Society.
"The mission to return a sample of the asteroid to Earth is
a bold and
scientifically valuable undertaking,"
MUSES is an acronym for a series of missions that have been
launched on a MU
rocket using the Space Engineering Spacecraft. "C"
indicates that this is
the third mission of the series. According to Japanese custom,
the mission
will receive a permanent name after it is launched.
The names of individuals will be etched on an aluminum foil
sheet, which
will be enclosed inside a target marker -- a softball-sized
artificial ball.
The target marker will be released onto the asteroid surface as a
guide to
enable the MUSES-C spacecraft to touch down safely to collect
samples.
ISAS, the space agency responsible for Japanese robotic
exploration of the
solar system, successfully flew the names of 270,000 people
aboard NOZOMI,
which is currently en route to Mars.
The MUSES-C campaign is the latest in a series of similar
ventures sponsored
by The Planetary Society. Previous Society programs to send names
to space
include the Mars Pathfinder in 1997; Stardust, launched in 1999,
and The
Planetary Society's own Cosmos 1, The first solar sail.
TPS/J is the first international affiliate of The Planetary
Society. Since
its inception in 1999, the Japanese organization has sponsored a
variety of
public outreach activities through its website and publications,
both
independently and in cooperation with The Planetary Society.
To send names to an asteroid on MUSES-C, and to be a part of
history, visit
The Planetary Society's website at http://planetary.org
To learn more about the MUSES-C mission, visit
http://www.isas.ac.jp/e/enterp/missions/muses-c/cont.htm
THE PLANETARY SOCIETY:
Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded The Planetary
Society in
1980 to advance the exploration of the solar system and to
continue the
search for extraterrestrial life. With members in over 140
countries, the
Society is the largest space interest group in the world.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For more information about The Planetary Society, contact Susan
Lendroth at
(626) 793-5100 ext 237 or by e-mail at susan.lendroth@planetary.org.
The Planetary Society
65 N. Catalina Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91106-2301
Tel: (626) 793-5100
Fax: (626) 793-5528
E-Mail: tps@planetary.org
=============
(6) FREE LECTURES LINK SPACE ROCKS AND EARTH LIFE
>From Ron Baalke <baalke@jpl.nasa.gov>
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Martha J. Heil (818) 354-0850
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
June 12, 2002
FREE LECTURES LINK SPACE ROCKS AND EARTH LIFE
The influence of asteroids and comets on life on Earth will be
the topic of
two free, public lectures entitled "Comets, Asteroids and
the Interplanetary
Shooting Gallery" at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on
Thursday, June 20,
and at Pasadena City College on Friday, June 21.
Dr. Don Yeomans, head of NASA's Near Earth Objects program
office, will
discuss how comets and asteroids brought the building blocks of
life to the
young Earth and how later impacts caused worldwide extinctions.
He will also
describe steps being taken today to detect potentially hazardous
comets and
asteroids.
Liquid water, carbon-based molecules and a relatively stable
environment are
critical elements for life. Comets and asteroids can bring water
and the
chemicals on which life is based, but can also bring widespread
destruction.
If future impacts are inevitable, what should we do?
Both lectures begin at 7 p.m. Seating is on a first-come,
first-served
basis. The JPL lecture will be webcast live and will be available
after the
event at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/jun02.html
The lecture at JPL, located at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, off
the Oak
Grove Drive exit of the 210 (Foothill) Freeway, will be held in
the von
Karman Auditorium. The Friday lecture will be held in Pasadena
City
College's Vosloh Forum at 1570 E. Colorado Blvd.
For more information, visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/jun02.html
or call (818) 354-0112. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.
===========
(7) WE THE PEOPLE OF MARS ....
>From Tech Central Station, 12 June 2002
http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/defensewrapper.jsp?PID=1051-350
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds 06/12/2002
In response to a column of mine on Mars a few weeks back, reader
Philip
Shropshire posted a comment asking: "I'm curious as to what
you think. Would
you prefer to live under the American constitution on Mars or a
new
constitution that you designed yourself...in case you're looking
for next
week's column material."
Well, I'm always happy with suggestions for new columns, but this
isn't
actually all that new an idea. In fact, the Smithsonian
Institution, in
cooperation with Boston University's Center for Democracy,
produced a set of
principles for creating a new constitution to govern human
societies on
Mars, and elsewhere in outer space; fellow lawyer John Ragosta
and I drafted
an alternative proposal that was published in the American Bar
Association's
journal of law, science and technology, Jurimetrics. (Alas,
neither document
is available on the Web.)
Shropshire makes it easy, of course: I'd rather live under a new
constitution that I designed myself -- it's the constitutions
designed by
other people that I'm worried about. Actually, that may not even
be true.
The United States Constitution isn't perfect, but it's lasted a
long time,
through all sorts of stresses, without producing the sort of
tyranny or
genocide that has been all-too-common elsewhere, even in
countries we
generally regard as civilized. So perhaps it's been demonstrated
to be
"fault tolerant."
But the interesting (and worrying) thing about proposals for new
constitutions for outer space is that they mostly take it for
granted that
the United States Constitution offers too much freedom. Writing
in Ad Astra
magazine some years ago, William Wu writes that"[s]pace
colonists may face
life on a political leash," and compares space colony life
to that in an
oppressive company town. "In a company town, freedom of
expression may be in
danger. Democracy permits citizens to make public statements
about political
figures that they would never say openly about their immediate
bosses or
top-level officers of the companies for which they work. The
security and
efficiency of a well-organized and well-run company town in space
might be
politically stifling. . . . The colonization of space may point
toward a
weakening of individual rights and a strengthening of government
power."
The participants in the Smithsonian conference on space
governance seemed to
feel the same way, stressing the need to balance individual
freedoms against
the needs of the community rather strongly, and emphasizing a
wide array of
social controls: "The imperatives of the community
safety," they wrote, "and
individual survival within the unique environment of outer space
shall be
guaranteed in harmony with the exercise of such fundamental
individual
rights as freedom of speech, religion, assembly, contract, travel
to, in and
from outer space, media and communications." There's no
similar provision in
the United States Constitution, and this probably reflects the
participants'
belief that in space, we won't be able to afford as much freedom
as we can
on Earth.
This view is probably wrong, but nonetheless it concerns me a
great deal.
It is probably wrong because all of the available evidence is
that things
don't work this way. Although there are some simulated Mars bases
on Earth
now, the closest current analogs to a space colony are Antarctic
bases. But
these are not harsh, dictatorial environments. By contrast, the
kinds of
conditions that Antarctic crews face tend to force the
abandonment of
traditional hierarchical systems in favor of more flexible ones.
As Andrew
Lawler writes:
A winter base in Antarctica is a unique world, where the cook
often has
greater prestige than the officer-in-charge and the radio
operator can have
more influence than an established scientist. The traditional
hierarchical
structure of the military, and of government as a whole, breaks
down... This
was a controversial and embarrassing realization for the Navy.
Flexible
authority and sharing of tasks among everyone are vital... This
can run
against the grain of highly specialized scientists and career
military
officers. The absence of women was also a factor. Navy traditions
excluded
females from the continent, and this increased tensions.
Some lessons have been learned. With great reluctance, the Navy
eventually
allowed women on the continent... A more flexible organizational
structure
is tolerated, and private enterprise is now providing some
services and
personnel... The Antarctican experience reminds us that the
dangers of
mutiny or psychosis in a space station or colony are as real as
the threat
of meteors or solar flares.
Experience, thus, tends to suggest that overly rigid and
controlled
environments are harmful to survival under such conditions, not
essential to
it. George Robinson and Harold White agree, stressing in their
book Envoys
of Mankind that "the real answer to [space] community
success probably lies
in motivated, self-actualized, strong, adventurous,
unconventional, yet
disciplined and well-trained human beings."
I said that the negative view of liberties in space societies
worries me
even though it is probably wrong. Here is why. I believe that,
consciously
or unconsciously, interest in space societies is as high as it is
because
their future in many ways mirrors our own. Many characteristics
of space
societies, such as strong dependence on advanced technology,
problems with
maintaining environmental quality, the need for people to work
together
under stress, and individuals' strong dependence upon their
society for
basic necessities such as food and water, are simply amplified
images of
characteristics already present, and growing, in our own society.
This is a good reason for being interested in space societies,
since by
studying their problems we gain a window into our future on
Earth. It is
also a reason to be worried. For if there is a general belief
that a high
level of interdependence and environmental fragility means that
space
settlers will not be able to afford individual rights, then what
of those of
us who remain on Earth under similar conditions? I don't think
that the
march of technology has made individual rights obsolete, but I
worry that
others do. And I believe that it is wrong. Just as space
societies will need
access to the creativity and individual initiative of their
inhabitants to
flourish, so will societies on Earth. Surely the failure of
totalitarian
societies worldwide to achieve any kind of social -- or even
material --
greatness illustrates that.
In fact, I think that although early Mars societies will not
offer certain
kinds of freedoms that we enjoy on Earth -- such as the freedom
to be
nonproductive sponges living off the labors of others -- they
will offer
more freedom for individuals to make something of themselves. And
I suspect
that, being populated by people willing to undertake a tremendous
life-altering journey in order to make something of themselves,
they will
also be populated by people who are unwilling to be subjected to
the sort of
pointless regulation that is all too often the rule on Earth. At
that point,
they'll start writing their own constitutions, and what we
Earthlings have
to say about it will matter very little.
Which is as it should be.
© 2002 Tech Central Station
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