LOOKING UP
Earlier today, I had the pleasure of watching a Netflix film about William Shatner aka Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, actually going briefly into space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin capsule. What struck me was the hindsight he shared with so many former astronauts, about his reaction to seeing the Earth as the fragile “blue marble” it is, traveling at breakneck speed through the dark cosmos. The response is typically so deeply emotional, it makes me think of a new form of spirituality and perhaps the birth of a new religion, though I hope it remains in the spiritual camp long before being monitized as a religion. Still…viewing the Earth from afar seems to encourage a paradigm shift in the way one views the world when afterwards standing two feet on dirt. If only we could all experience this and a new awakening.
In my printed, digital and audiobook, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor (aka actor, author, scientist, educator, former physician Daniel S. Janik) — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ... — I really don’t touch on this; however, I would like to assure readers that it will be more than just touched on in the sequel, “Prophecy,” which I’m currently writing. You see, at one time while working as a research scientist on loan to NASA-Johnson Space Center and later NASA-Ames Research Center, I had the good fortune of flight-qualifying and then flying an experiment on the “Vomit Comet," experiencing relative weightlessness. Okay, yes, I did put in my application back then to be an astronaut, though the Challenger disaster ended that prospective line.
But back to enlightenment. If I could wish two educational requisites for every college student, it would be to (1) experience weightlessness on a microgravity flight; and (2) see the world from space through the windows of Blue Origin. I can’t think of anything that would prepare the next generation better for the challenges that lie ahead, be they in government, business, education, transportation, tourism, health, military, you name it. As the flight officer said to me during my own microgravity flight: "Just go for it!"
In my printed, digital and audiobook, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor (aka actor, author, scientist, educator, former physician Daniel S. Janik) — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ... — I really don’t touch on this; however, I would like to assure readers that it will be more than just touched on in the sequel, “Prophecy,” which I’m currently writing. You see, at one time while working as a research scientist on loan to NASA-Johnson Space Center and later NASA-Ames Research Center, I had the good fortune of flight-qualifying and then flying an experiment on the “Vomit Comet," experiencing relative weightlessness. Okay, yes, I did put in my application back then to be an astronaut, though the Challenger disaster ended that prospective line.
But back to enlightenment. If I could wish two educational requisites for every college student, it would be to (1) experience weightlessness on a microgravity flight; and (2) see the world from space through the windows of Blue Origin. I can’t think of anything that would prepare the next generation better for the challenges that lie ahead, be they in government, business, education, transportation, tourism, health, military, you name it. As the flight officer said to me during my own microgravity flight: "Just go for it!"
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