Waving Hello to Pluto: Mankind’s Enduring Quest for Knowledge
Hmmm, who would have imagined a quarter century ago that we would be waving a virtual hello to Pluto and its five small moons?
History was made earlier this week when the NASA space probe New Horizons completed a flyby of Pluto. It was the first spacecraft to reach the region of the distant “dwarf planet”.
A little context to shed light on the scope of this accomplishment. Astronomers have divided the universe into three zones. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars occupy the first zone of space. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune occupy the second zone of space. Pluto is located in the third zone of space.
Simply put, Pluto is at the edge of the known solar system – 7.5 billion kilometres from earth. As a point of reference, the earth’s circumference is 40,000 kilometres. Do the math, if you are so inclined.
It is difficult to wrap our minds around distance figures that large. So let’s use a different point of reference. The New Horizons probe blasted off in January 2006. It has taken over nine years for it to reach Pluto. Suffice to say, Pluto is way, way out there.
Building a spacecraft that can sustain a mission of close to a decade and programming it to travel unmanned for over 7 billion kilometres and send photos and data to scientists back on earth – what an astounding technological achievement.
NASA has had its share of milestone accomplishments over the years, such as:
July 20, 1969: Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong takes man’s first steps on the moon. I was 11 years old at the time. I do not have a good memory for events that far back. But I do remember sitting in a grade school classroom watching the historic moment unfold on television.
April 24, 1990: The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope on the space shuttle Discovery. It continues to orbit 600 kilometres above Earth and open our eyes to the wonders of space.
1998: The first component of the International Space Station launched into orbit. Crews have staffed the station since 2000 including Canadian icon Commander Chris Hadfield.
On the more sobering side of the equation, NASA has also had its share of tragedies:
January 27, 1967: A flash fire during a launch pad test took the lives of three crew members.
January 28, 1986: The space shuttle Challenger exploded just over a minute into flight. All seven crew members lost their lives.
February 1, 2003: The space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas during re-entry. Again, all seven crew members were lost.
And, of course, the near tragedy of Apollo 13 – immortalized in the Ron Howard movie – when an explosion forced the crew to return to earth using the Lunar Module as a lifeboat.
The New Horizons Pluto Flyby is a technological metaphor for mankind’s enduring quest to expand the boundaries of our understanding and unlock the mysteries of the universe. This knowledge sometimes comes at a high cost. We need to celebrate the successes, accept the failures and, above all, honour those who gave their lives in the quest.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .
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