AURA

As if rocket liftoff isn’t enough of a challenge, Sine tells me there’s this little matter of navigating the rocket so as to not bang into something and ruin the trip. Like a paint chip, or what have you.. What he showed me just from what NASA lets the newspapers know is that many times space shuttle windows have to be replaced because of colliding with paint chips. Paint chips! And there’s lots of stuff up there that’s bigger than paint chips. The Space Command where they keep track of all this stuff used to give public presentations about their work, but not any more. 9/11 or something. So I guess it’s pointless to mention where they are in Colorado Springs near the zoo. I like the zoo. I just wanted Sine to see that blasting off in his Tesla or whatever maybe isn’t such a good idea. This link and that article I pointed to earlier is as close to a tour as you’re likely to get.

● 10 day weather forecast just in case you’re going to Colorado Springs for ------- the zoo, maybe?

And I know this is a little off the subject and not exactly in our desert backyard, but while we’re at it, I think it’s worth mentioning that the stuff we put in the water is almost as hard to deal with as the stuff we put in orbit. Take a look at this book to get a snapshot of what’s happening with the water: Author is Loree Griffin Burns, Tracking trash: flotsam, jetsam, and the science of ocean motion (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2007). And did you see that news item about whales getting washed up on shore because they mistook so much plastic for food that they ran out of room to eat any more? They can’t digest plastic is why. It just stays in their stomach and takes up space. Jesus!

● Get book