SPACE POLITICS - Orville and Wilbur Wright triumphed at Kitty Hawk. They invented and built the world’s first successful airplane and made the first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. They succeeded without the interference of the government.
Thomas Alva Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He triumphed at Menlo Park, New Jersey. He even helped all see the light with one of the world’s greatest influence – the incandescent bulb. He succeeded without the interference of the government.
SpaceX triumphed right here in Hawthorne in the South Bay. They succeeded despite the interference of the government.
This is only the beginning. Work is quietly underway in the South Bay on a massive 22-story rocket whose power is rivaled in the US only by the mighty Saturn V, which took man to the moon, in a risky venture that could herald a new era in space flight.
“We’re embarking on something that’s unprecedented in the Space industry,” Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive said. “This is territory that has only belonged to the US government with tens of billions of dollars.”
Musk’s company is building the 227-foot tall Falcon Heavy even though there are no guarantees that the military or NASA will step forward with money or to do any of the heavy lifting.
The mathematics and engineering this work is based on dates back hundreds of years. Thousands have contributed to it. One of the foremost was Johann Carl Frederick Gauss. He discovered the calculus, orbit determination, and other theory that today’s technology is based. Documentation of this theory and other work developed over the centuries would easily fill the coliseum
One anecdote illustrating Gauss’s genius is that as a child his headmaster asked the elementary school class to add the arithmetic progression of the integers from 1 to 100. The young Gauss produced the correct answer within seconds. He realized that 1 + 100 = 101, 2 + 99 = 101, 3+98 = 101, and so on, for a total sum of 50 x 101 = 5050.
The theory that SpaceX technology is based on includes orbit determination, gravitational models, an Earth Centered Inertial coordinate system, atmospheric models, solar pressure models, propulsion theory, wind models, mechanical structure theory, materials theory, etc. It is the most incredible technology man has ever conceived.
How did we get where we are. It is the passion of man. There is no such thing as a 5 day work week. It is 24 hours a day every day of the year.
In fact, several of the aerospace companies converted many offices to apartments during the cold war when our survival was at stake. That way engineers and scientists didn’t have to stop work while pursuing their goals and their dreams.
Where does all this lead – you ain’t seen nothing yet.
While folks whistle T.G.I.F. in government buildings the SpaceX people always whistle T.G.I.M… as in Monday.
(Kay Martin is a writer and a contributor to CityWatch. His years of travel and work included tours in Russia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, Hawaii, Latin America, and the Pacific. His new book “Along for the Ride” will be out and available shortly. He can be contacted at [email protected].) –cw
Tags: Kay Martin, SpaceX, aerospace, jobs, NASA, space travel, Space Industry
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 45
Pub: June 5, 2012