Space Oddyssey

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Did anyone watch the BBC docu last night about a fictional voyage across the solar system?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3992971.stm

Got me thinking... Where would we be now if we'd kept up the momentum of the Space Race in the 60s?  Would we be colonising the moon or be commercialising space?

Looking at NASA's fleet of twenty plus year old shuttles, I wonder where we lost our fascination for exploration.  Nearly forty years on, the achievements of the Apollo missions are even more astounding for the time.  Did we really lose our motivation with Richard Nixon's famous post Apollo 11 declaration "the party's over"?

To put my feelings in perspective the difference between the first flight of a Spitfire and Apollo 11 was a mere 33 years....  

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blobrana wrote:
Yeah, i caught the program...
Really cool images, though the story line was a bit dry and pointless...
Hammy acting let down the real story, though it was clearly designed  to be acessable to kids, but 9:00 and 10:00 was a bit late...

The dialogue was pretty awful, but it was something that reminded me of my youthful fascination with all things space.

And I rushed outside afterwards to catch the aurora display, a busy nite for me.

You saw the Aurora?  Lucky so and so....  Erm, I don't suppose you got any pics?  Have never seen the Northern (or Southern) Lights and have promised myself that one day I will.

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blobrana wrote:
But here`s (someone elses) photo of a decent display.

 just for you....  :-)

Cheers Blob,

I'll have to check out the pictures on your site, they're pretty cool.

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spaceape wrote:
Condoms? There have been EPT kits aboard the ISS since the second crew (including 1 woman/Susan Helms) went aboard. I would think the Ortho-Evra birth control patch would be better for the sex thing.

A husband and wife team have already flown on one of the shuttles IIRC.  Rumour has it the shuttle commander of the mission was quoted as saying "they went below for a while, could have been doing anything" with a wry grin on his face.  

I'm sure I read that astronauts generally report loss of libido in zero g, for periods of up to a fortnight after returning to Earth.