Interstellar +9

Keith’s note: Nine years ago – on 7 November 2014 – I had a chance to visit a large scale model of the “Ranger” Spacecraft used in the filming of “Interstellar” (my original 2014 posting “Visiting Interstellar’s Spacecraft” with lots of pictures). A large tent was erected in a parking lot at the Udvar Hazy Facility near Dulles, Airport in Virginia 11 miles from my house. So I visited it more than once. Often times I was the only person in the tent other the lone security guard. Then I went inside to view the film on a vast IMAX screen in original film projection format. I was spoiled. I really loved this film for the way if portrayed a personal approach to the exploration of the universe – the small aspects and the vast aspects. The twin Voyager spacecraft travel ~ 3.5 AUs (325.5 million miles) a year – so they’ve both traversed around 3 billion miles outward across interstellar space since the movie came out. Meanwhile back on Earth we are still tearing our planet’s life support system apart – indeed the fires and natural disasters depicted in the film ring far more true today than they did in 2014. And of course we are doing much the same thing to our society – thus adding to the impetus to move outward. Oh yes: they almost used the NASA worm logo in the movie – and almost spelled my last name right on the aft end of Ranger 😉 Some of my favorite lines (there are so many to chose from):

• “We must reach far beyond our own lifespans. we must think not as individuals but as species. We must confront the reality of interstellar travel.”
• “Mankind Was Born On Earth. It Was Never Meant To Die Here.”
• “We Used To Look Up At The Sky And Wonder At Our Place In The Stars. Now, We Just Look Down And Worry About Our Place In The Dirt.”
• “Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” (Dylan Thomas)
• ” We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we’ve barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, that our destiny lies above us.”