Buck Rogers is Boring to Me

Came to a somewhat shocking realization this morning as I was reading more news about the New Horizon spacecraft’s remarkable visit with Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day:

The current state of manned space exploration is really boring.

And maybe that’s a crap attitude, similar to the “milk run,” or “making landing on the moon about as exciting as flying to Pittsburg” attitude the Apollo astronauts and associated hangers-on had to deal with in the early 1970s.

But it’s my attitude.

And I’m sure whomever is currently in orbit around the Earth right now – I assume there are people in orbit; it’s become de rigeur to have someone in orbit these days – are doing interesting things. Highly valuable things that will someday contribute to the great whatever.

Or maybe not.

I have little interest in finding out.

Clearly, there are others who are interested. There’s even a website and app – of course there’s an app – that’ll tell you, to the man or woman, how many people there are currently in space.

It’s three. As of 0731 today.

What are they doing in space?

This particular site doesn’t seem to care either. Maybe the app is different. But right now, it’ll tell you the number of people in space, their names, countries of origin, and just how long, to the day, they’ve been in space. Click on a name and you’ll get sent to that astronaut’s Wikipedia page.

Which don’t seem to care what, exactly, these people are doing in space either.

But I have read article after article about New Horizons and Ultima Thule. I’ve pored over what few photos have been released of this primitive little planetismal and can’t wait to see more. (Although the New Year’s Eve party they had at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory? Looked pretty boring to me. Of course, there were people involved. Boo.)

But Ultima Thule. Forget the dumb Nazi connection to the name. What would it be like to stand at the junction of those two lobes? Would each tower above you as if you were at the bottom of a narrow canyon? Or are they large enough the view would appear as if you were merely at the bottom of a wide valley? As I’ve never stood on a small object like either Ultima or Thule, I have no frame of reference, aside from the canyon/valley idea. But I would love to stand there. That’s when manned space exploration gets exciting to me – much more than merely orbiting weightless. Even if they’re doing really neato science as they bob about.

I should fix my attitude. Because they probably are doing interesting things at the International Space Station. Besides, continued public support for manned space exploration just might get us out of orbit and onto something much more interesting than a tin can floating above the earth.

But when it’s the probes and rovers that get to go to the interesting places like Ultima Thule, the far side of the Moon, and Mars, that’s where my main interest will remain.