"Space Colony Art"
Sandra Dodd
There's something I've been meaning to bring to this list and quote, but this morning on How to Be a Retronaut, these came up.
I looked at them all, thinking about other science fiction art I've seen. They're really detailed.
http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/10/space-colony-art-1970s/
Anyone with a few moments to look, please do. Think about them a bit and then read the very short note at the bottom. I'll bring that quote to tie to it.
Holly and I are leaving for several hours, driving north to see my niece, Holly's cousin Gina, to negotiate about some My Little Ponies Holly might want to buy from her. That's unrelated to this, mostly. :-)
Sandra
I looked at them all, thinking about other science fiction art I've seen. They're really detailed.
http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/10/space-colony-art-1970s/
Anyone with a few moments to look, please do. Think about them a bit and then read the very short note at the bottom. I'll bring that quote to tie to it.
Holly and I are leaving for several hours, driving north to see my niece, Holly's cousin Gina, to negotiate about some My Little Ponies Holly might want to buy from her. That's unrelated to this, mostly. :-)
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
In 1971, the Apollo 15 astronauts got in trouble for selling post-office souvenir stuff that they had taken into space. It seems really minor, but the space program was kind of sacred.
I remember having been in school in the 1960's (I started in 1959 and graduated in 1970; only went to public school for eleven years, and every year was at least half a '60s year). It was during the Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis happened, the Soviet Union intended to kill us all, we were sure. President Kennedy, whose family owned sailboats and tennis courts, told us all to exercise more, to be strong to defend the country from communists, and every president in those days pressed us to study math and science, because other countries were "ahead of us" and it was vital for us to be prepared to go to space.
SERIOUSLY, it was constant background. Atomic bombs and space.
In the current issue of Smithsonian magazine, there's a little interview with Al Worden, who has just published a new book called Falling to Earth, about that Apollo 15 mission and the scandal.
Here's one of the questions and it's short but gigantic answer:
Julie Mianecki, of Smithsonian Magazine:
What is your reaction to the end of the space shuttle program?
Al Worden:
It's really sad. The space program is exactly the shot in the arm this country needs--not just from the standpoint of going somewhere, but in developing the technology to go there, and in providing motivation for kids in school.
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Sandra
I remember having been in school in the 1960's (I started in 1959 and graduated in 1970; only went to public school for eleven years, and every year was at least half a '60s year). It was during the Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis happened, the Soviet Union intended to kill us all, we were sure. President Kennedy, whose family owned sailboats and tennis courts, told us all to exercise more, to be strong to defend the country from communists, and every president in those days pressed us to study math and science, because other countries were "ahead of us" and it was vital for us to be prepared to go to space.
SERIOUSLY, it was constant background. Atomic bombs and space.
In the current issue of Smithsonian magazine, there's a little interview with Al Worden, who has just published a new book called Falling to Earth, about that Apollo 15 mission and the scandal.
Here's one of the questions and it's short but gigantic answer:
Julie Mianecki, of Smithsonian Magazine:
What is your reaction to the end of the space shuttle program?
Al Worden:
It's really sad. The space program is exactly the shot in the arm this country needs--not just from the standpoint of going somewhere, but in developing the technology to go there, and in providing motivation for kids in school.
----------------------------------
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
In English there are a couple of idioms that are fading away. One is "carts before horses," and the other is "the tail is wagging the dog."
There might be other ways to describe that in other languages, but for an astronaut who was born in the 1930s and who went to military school before space flight was planned to suggest that an extremely expensive space program should be maintained to give kids a reason to work hard in school is putting the interplanetary wagon before the horse.
He didn't go to school to be an astronaut. There's no sense in kids who are in school now studying hard so we can be the first to go to the moon.
But back to those illustrations... That was a colony to house thousands of people, and NASA was paying artists to draw those up, I'm presuming, as they came from NASA files. So someone who studied art in the 1940's or '50's had a really great job for a while drawing up what future space-stations might look like. People weren't telling us to study art in the 1960's, but NASA was employing artists. :-) (Or at least one artist...)
We don't know what our kids need to know, but I'm pretty sure they do NOT need a badillion-dollar space program in existence just to spook/inspire them to study science.
Sandra
There might be other ways to describe that in other languages, but for an astronaut who was born in the 1930s and who went to military school before space flight was planned to suggest that an extremely expensive space program should be maintained to give kids a reason to work hard in school is putting the interplanetary wagon before the horse.
He didn't go to school to be an astronaut. There's no sense in kids who are in school now studying hard so we can be the first to go to the moon.
But back to those illustrations... That was a colony to house thousands of people, and NASA was paying artists to draw those up, I'm presuming, as they came from NASA files. So someone who studied art in the 1940's or '50's had a really great job for a while drawing up what future space-stations might look like. People weren't telling us to study art in the 1960's, but NASA was employing artists. :-) (Or at least one artist...)
We don't know what our kids need to know, but I'm pretty sure they do NOT need a badillion-dollar space program in existence just to spook/inspire them to study science.
Sandra
Joyce Fetteroll
On Oct 22, 2011, at 10:19 AM, Sandra Dodd wrote:
the atmosphere in school was all fired up about not letting the
Russians beat us in the space race again.
What would have been clearer for him to say is that the space program
inspired many analytical kids to choose science and engineering
instead of something more practical like banking, business or being a
doctor.
Star Trek did too :-) Perhaps even more so since I can remember
several engineers mentioning it as what influenced their choice of
careers. Unlike Star Wars (almost 10 years later) Star Trek was about
our future. And the future was hopeful (unlike the more common "future
is bleak" message that dominated science fiction then) where all the
world's problems had been solved. It was like Popular Science and
Popular Mechanics brought to life :-)
(And now there's loads of kids choosing forensic science because of
the CSI programs. I'm not sure where I was going with this! ;-)
I suspect most educators have no clue why math and science are pushed
so hard in schools. That's the way it's "always" been (for *their*
whole lives at least).
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> and in providing motivation for kids in schoolIt did have that effect. I was just a couple years behind Sandra and
the atmosphere in school was all fired up about not letting the
Russians beat us in the space race again.
What would have been clearer for him to say is that the space program
inspired many analytical kids to choose science and engineering
instead of something more practical like banking, business or being a
doctor.
Star Trek did too :-) Perhaps even more so since I can remember
several engineers mentioning it as what influenced their choice of
careers. Unlike Star Wars (almost 10 years later) Star Trek was about
our future. And the future was hopeful (unlike the more common "future
is bleak" message that dominated science fiction then) where all the
world's problems had been solved. It was like Popular Science and
Popular Mechanics brought to life :-)
(And now there's loads of kids choosing forensic science because of
the CSI programs. I'm not sure where I was going with this! ;-)
I suspect most educators have no clue why math and science are pushed
so hard in schools. That's the way it's "always" been (for *their*
whole lives at least).
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]