Monday, August 29, 2011

16.) LISA

We all know that the human race has difficult challenges that need to be faced and overcome. An ever increasing number of people are continually competing for a finite amount of resources. They "borrow entropy", and by that I mean that to create and sustain the order necessary to support life as we know it, people create a lot of chaos elsewhere. Currently, elsewhere is the planet we all inhabit.

Even a simple donkey like myself can see that something must change; that humans can't continue as they are for long. To do that they will have to move beyond our cozy little planet and adapt in ways not previously imagined.

Much like the Europeans in the middle ages who believed the world was flat, humans have yet to venture far from shores of Earth. They have been to the Moon, but even in terms of our tiny solar system, that could be compared to sailing to an island that can be clearly seen from the mainland.

People have never journeyed outside of the protection of the Earth's magnetosphere. They might have to generate their own "portable magnetic field" to do that safely. Yup, they are going to need a lot of energy and sooner would be better than later. Their current reliance on fossil fuels cannot sustain them, and it certainly can't take them where they need to go.

Of course, many smart people are working very hard on this, but there are still some fundamental things that we all don't understand about how the universe works. We are surrounded by energy, heck we are made of it, but the current methods of harvesting and using it are primitive and wasteful.

Many experts believe that the answer lies in "the world of the small". Billions are being spent on the Large Hadron Collider and much is being learned, but I believe that the answer may actually lie in the vast and seemingly infinite. The universe currently appears to be expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. Something is counteracting and overcoming the force of gravity, but what would have such an anti-gravitational effect? Anti-matter would.

The idea is not new. It's part of what's being studied at the Hadron Collider and others. It was featured on Star Trek in the 1970's. Put just a tiny amount matter and anti-matter together and boom! A lot of energy is released.

I believe that like the reserves of coal, oil and natural gas that the Vikings were completely unaware of, a vast ocean of anti-matter is waiting to be explored and harvested. That's the kind of energy that humans need. It doesn't exist in infinite quantities, but there's more of it than can currently be measured, or even imagined. Like the wind that propelled explorers to the new world, energy released by matter/anti-matter annihilation may some day propel humans, ( and who knows, maybe even donkeys! ), to the stars.

But, before that can happen, people will need to understand much more about exactly how the universe works, (like gravity for instance). Much can and will be learned in the world of the small, but as Darwin and Humboldt understood, the key to understanding how complex systems work often involves a bigger and broader understanding. It's the kind of understanding that can only be gained through a thorough, detailed, ongoing and hands-on study of the huge and the vast.

NASA was involved in a project like that called LISA.

"The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a planned space mission to detect and accurately measure gravitational waves from astronomical sources. LISA was originally conceived as a joint effort between the United States space agency NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). However, on April 8th 2011, NASA announced that it would likely be unable to continue its LISA partnership with the European Space Agency, due to funding limitations. ESA is planning to begin a full revision of the mission's concept commencing in February 2012.

If launched, LISA will be the first dedicated space-based gravitational-wave detector." (Wikipedia, "Laser Interferometer Space Antenna", https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Laser_Interferometer_Space_Antenna)

NASA recently cut the budget for the LISA Mission, putting some of America's best scientists out of work, ( at least temporarily ). If I were you, ( a person, not a humble donkey), I would hope that ESA is going to "pick up the ball."

Christopher Columbus had a money problem. He wanted to sail three sturdy ships out into the Atlantic, to search for a western route to the Orient. In 1482 he presented the idea to King John II of Portugal. The King submitted the proposal to "his experts", who rejected the idea. He pitched the idea in Italy and England, but was also rejected. In 1486 he presented his idea to Queen Isabella of Spain. She referred it to her "panel of experts" and he was turned down again.

Columbus kept lobbying anyone who would listen. He came up with half of the money for his mission through a group of private Italian investors and eventually he convinced Ferdinand and Isabella to take a big risk. Spain was broke after just fighting a war to conquer Granada, but the monarchs chose to ignore their "experts" and "committees". They looked at the big picture and ordered their treasurer to, "shift funds amongst various royal accounts". (Wikipedia, "Christopher Columbus", https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Christopher_Columbus)

The rest, is history.

Yes money is tight, but what might be learned by missions like LISA could actually save the planet and change the course of human history. Humans must explore and learn and adapt to survive. Short-sightedness could prove fatal in the long run.

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