Discussion Intrest in Space

[Unstung]

Anyways, I've always had an interest in aviation; and space for a long time. When I got Gran Turismo 3 (2003), I gained a little interest in cars, but never that much. They all involve mechanical objects (the "mechanical objects" part I stole from Michael Collins).
My interest in space came... a long while ago. I knew many astrological (and some spaceflight) facts that nobody knew when I was very young, at least for my age group. I was able to recite the order of the planets at a few years of age, including Pluto. At about 13-years-old, I read many of Arthur C. Clarke's books, which may have increased my interest, and lost some interest in aviation. An interest in aviation is too common for me, I guess, and destructive (in war-time).
I'm more interested in the high-speed, high-altitude, experimental, and so on, parts of aviation (X-1, X-15, X-29, XB-70, SR-71, U-2, etc.), which often involves NASA. Space exploration is usually a peaceful advance of knowledge, an advance without violence. Peaceful advances are more wonderful than any other type of advance, at least I think. Damn, I'm a pacifist.
But majoring in aerospace engineering is difficult, and I'm running out of time to decide.

 

[GoForPDI]

My love of Space is still in its infant years. I guess I always had a great interest in it from watching Apollo 13 as a kid, but my true appreciation of it really did ''take-off'' ('scuse the pun..) last year, which just happened to be the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, and the BBC happened to be showing a programme about the Apollo moon landings. Watching all the old footage of the glorious Saturn V launches and the men inside their tiny capsule brought back alot of my enthusiasm for watching Apollo 13! But I was looking at the pictures with older eyes, and I trully appreciated that, in the 1960's we landed on the bloody moon!

After this, it was straight to Wikipedia, and not before long, I had the history of Apollo in my head. Then I discovered the HBO mini seires, ''From the Earth to the Moon'', which is one beautiful piece of broadcasting. It almost brings a tear to my eye when I watch it, the music, the acting, and the fact that, it actually happened! And since then, I have been simply hooked. I watched my first live Shuttle launch on Spacevidcast, and watching these current breed of astronauts ingressing into the mid-deck really did make me think, every manned launch is a fantastic adventure. Even the other day, watching Dmitri, Cady and Paolo ingress into Raasvet put a big smile on my face. As much as I love the three letter acronyms and the engineering and the craft, the thing I love watching is the human adventure.

I often look at the Moon these days, and wonder: Who? When? and what with? And with my application University being sent away tomorrow (I'm applying for Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering), I sure hope I get a chance to print my boot size into the Lunar regolith or Martian sand one day!

''8, you are go for TLI!''

 

[supersonic]

Where did I get my interest in space?
Simply put:

It's just awesome!:thumbup:

 

[Stevodoran]

I never was interested in space until i played orbiter. I always thought it was a thing for rocket scientists. When i got into orbiter i started learning the physics of space.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

My mother said I attentively watched the '69 moon landing while in diapers, sitting in the living room floor. I'm too young to remember that, but I do remember Apollo-Soyuz, and the Skylab missions.
There was a time when I would have traded everything I have in order to be an astronaut, and given the oppertunity now, I'd still trade almost everything...

 

[ryan]

I actually like cars, anything really mechanical, but it's more revolved around racing but theres my five cents.
Also @ PhantomCruiser i love hearing peoples stories about the moon landings or Apollo 13 sequence of events.
As i was born 30ish years after all this, my father wasn't even a glint in the eye of my grandfather.

 

[PennyBlack]

I like space, because nobody will hear you scream.!!

It was watching science fiction when I was young that charged my imagination where space is concerned.
The mind runs overtime when thinking of the infinate possibilites out there, should we make it, which should be as a unified species.
It amazes me how we can see so far into the past simply by looking into the night sky. The universe is a visual time machine. But we only see what's past and when we actually get out there, we'll also see our past. Imagine going out 40 light years or so, turning your scope and spying to see who was behind the grassy noll. Or watch the Mayflower land the pilgrims. If soon, we can see the surface of another planet with powerful arrays, then we would be seeing what happened many many years ago. But it's all relative and it does make me think of what we could learn from watching other species in the same way should we discover a subject worth sudy, should we make it.
Owe, not forgetting the VAST real-estate and HUGE resources at our finger tips and not alien flag in sight, woo what joy.

A poster on here was right, we are very insignificant, even though we aim for monolithic construction and structure.

I think space is an option we cannot afford ignore, we should know not to keep all our eggs in one basket now we know the dangers of cosmic snooker.

 

[Ark]

I didn't mean to offend, and I certainly didn't mean to look down on anybody. I don't own a rocket plane either. Hell, I don't even technically own a car.

That was a poor choice of words on my part. My only point was that looking only at the numbers, there is no comparison between the power of a car engine and a rocket.

Also, I said nothing about building the vehicle yourself. Anyone who can put together something as complex as an automobile has my respect.

But if you say "My [insert store-bought car name here] has 350HP. Just imagine how much power that is!" I won't be able to help imagining it next to a solid rocket motor test stand.

My apologies if I was offensive.

Sorry. You can probably guess what I do for a living and hobby, and sometimes that nerve is a little raw when stepped on. :lol:

I like performance cars because they're exciting to drive, and they get to be uniquely yours. They are the most powerful, complicated, fast-moving device the average person can own, modify, and maintain entirely themselves.

Rockets are exponentially moreso, and therefore are the result of hundreds or thousands of people working on their own areas of expertise to make it happen. It's a huge, shared experience, as opposed to automobiles being a very personal experience. Yeah, they don't compare, but IMO they aren't supposed to.

As for the thread topic of personal interest in space, I've always been a sci-fi nut. Also, I recognize the fact that our species is rapidly reaching the point where the planet can't sustain our population and industry in the long run. Even in my own lifetime I have peak oil and overpopulation issues to look forward to. To me, the choice is clear: Learn and care about space because that's the only place we'll find the resources to keep up the expansion and modernization of our civilization.

 

[T.Neo]

I don't disrespect those who have an interest in cars, I just do not, for the most part, relate.

Maybe it's also because the 6 year old inside me somewhere thinks the idea of owning a 100 kilowatt car is insufficient and thus demands his own 15 200 000 kilowatt space shuttle.

The "own, modify and maintain" bit with cars has always struck me as a liability and a chore. Guess that's just how I'm different.

 

[Izack]

The "own, modify and maintain" bit with cars has always struck me as a liability and a chore.

It depends on whether one enjoys it or not. Plenty of people would consider reading a manual and spending hours learning a spaceflight simulation to be a chore, but at least some people must like it, because we're here aren't we? :lol:

Personally I'd enjoy building and taking care of a machine, if I had the funds for it. But I don't, and so I dream of rockets. :shrug:

YMMV is bound to be a huge part of this thread.

 

[GoForPDI]

I'm a big car guy too Every year I religiously watch the Bathurst 1000 live (thats am 11pm-7am stint for me) and last year I managed to watch a good 17 hours of Le Mans, witnesing the Peugoet's blowing up one by one with a few hours left to let Audi take the win

I appreciate your avatar Ryan! Although I'm more of a Holden guy Go Murph!

 

[SiberianTiger]

Did anybody here role-play a whole universe set up in space environment, with various conflicting and allying alien nations, many 1000 years history, Galactic exploration and kilograms of paper sheets wasted for drawing strange pictures and writing down odd stories, secretly from the outside world, for many years of your childhood and teen age? Did you bother to calculate luminosity of stars, green belt radii for habitable planets and thrust ratio for your imaginary FTL spaceships after reading some popular science books?

Note: I for obvious reasons didn't watch Star Wars, Star Trek or read any significant space opera like books in those years. Everything just originated in my imagination.