Check out this editorial at The Crimson on Ares I-X:
Such an achievement augurs well: The new moon program is a shining rebuttal to detractors of America’s math and science programs as well as a promise for progress in American space exploration in the future.
To begin with, the rocket’s technical specifications are astounding. Thirty-two stories high, the Ares 1-X towers as the tallest rocket in the world. And the sight of the launch was no less spectacular than the rocket itself. The first stage of the engine brought the rocket 25 miles into the air until its fuel ran out and parachuted it into the ocean.
When Clark wrote the other day that the Ares was really tall, it was completely tongue-in-cheek, but this editorial writer seems to seriously believe that rocket height is a useful technical metric. And 25 whole miles in the air? What a spectacular achievement, fifty-plus years after the first orbital launch. But wait, it gets better:
But the true triumph of the Ares rocket doesn’t lie in its physical properties alone. It’s the less tangible inspiration the rocket will provide to future generations of American mathematicians, scientists, and engineers that makes it so important. Education reformers working with students from kindergarten through 12th grade will now be able to look to the rocket as a symbol of hope and inspiration. The Ares will encourage them to imagine even more fantastic goals and products that will be achieved after America repairs its education problem.
Yes, only the Corndog, flying a few times a year at billions per flight, will inspire the Young Pioneers, and fill them with hope. Hundreds or thousands of people going to and from orbit with their own money, reusable tugs fueled in LEO, or at the Lagrange points, on the moon, with orbital and lunar hotels? Boooorrring.
Sigh.
There is an OK trade school in Cambridge for people who actually KNOW about engineering…..and it isn’t havahd.
Now, for people who really want to be expert scientists, there is a FINE university in Pasadena, California.
I thought about heckling him. After all, public schools give you a similar education for tens of thousands less. But I figure he’s helping the economy out, one way or another.
The world’s tallest rocket….
And Spinal Tap is the world’s loudest rock’n’roll band.
Crank it up to 11, dudes!
I think what NASA is eventually aiming for is a rocket tall enough to reach the Moon from the Earth without having to be launched more than 25 miles. Wowee wowwww that is a big big big rocket you got there.
I hang my Harvard alum head in shame. Especially because the writer is also an editor of the Harvard Salient (the campus conservative paper), as I was ages ago.
It’s the less tangible inspiration the rocket will provide to future generations of American
Ares 1 inspires me to pack a spare parachute.
Oh come on. What do you expect? The guy just got done twelve years of being vigorously trained to write such PC fluff in essay after essay after term paper. It’s lucky he didn’t feel obliged to throw in some reference to multicultural empowerment or environmental sensitivty. This is how we train our youth, to repeat the slogans with manifest sincerity and verve. It’s not really his fault.
Especially because the writer is also an editor of the Harvard Salient (the campus conservative paper), as I was ages ago.
Well, we know the standards haven’t changed much over time.