To boldly go

When I was a boy growing up in ESSEX I suffered badly with Asthma when I was young , this meant that I spent a lot of time at home watching television. I loved watching science fiction and also science fact, I remember programs like The Time Tunnel, Logan's Run, Lost in Space, UFO, Captain Scarlett, Thunderbirds, Dr Who, Space 1999 and various others. In the science fact department there was Cosmos with Carl Sagan, a very young Patrick Moore and the Sky at Night, The Open University Lectures on BBC2 and of course up until 1972 the Apollo Moon Landings.

So where am I going with this blog? Well I guess I am saying I received a different kind of education during my early years one filled with endless possibilities for the science as predicted in the programs like Tomorrows World in the 70's, flying cars, anti gravity, time travel, living on the moon! All seemed possible in the good old 70's but sadly it was not to be.

Apollo went nowhere after 1972, “As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. God bless the crew of Apollo 17” this whole experience of early life left me with obviously a different outlook on life and the world, take for example me idea of a hero.

I am full of admiration for Neil Armstrong who may have been the first man to walk on the Moon, but Buzz Aldrin was the first man to urinate there. While millions watched on live television, Buzz relieved himself in a tube fitted inside his space suit while standing on the LM Lander.



My next hero was Alan Carter from Space 1999 (Nick Tate), Carter was the chef Eagle Transporter pilot, he died more times than I can remember but always came back due to temporal space vortex's or clever script writing, but he always saved the day bringing the Eagle in on a wing and a prayer and saving moonbase Alpha one more time, in a cheerful Australian kind of way, nothing phased him, be it alien monsters to the Moon being blown out of Earth Orbit!! “Eagle 1, Alan can you read me, can you make it?” “main motors gone, losing oxygen but yea I can make it commander”

 

How did this outlook imprint on my life? Well some of you will know that I host the Paranormal nights at Bodmin Jail, I mix Mediumship with Metaphysics from a perspective of Energy Therapy being an Energy Therapist (Reiki Master/Teacher). What you may not know is that I am also a member of The Planetary Society, and have my name listed on a microchip on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter currently in orbit around the moon, LRO will spend at least a year in a low polar orbit approximately 31 miles above the lunar surface, while its seven instruments find safe landing sites, locate potential resources and gather crucial data on the lunar environment that will help astronauts prepare for long-duration lunar expeditions.

Engineers are shown here with the microchip encased in a radiation hardened container and attached to the back of the propulsion module access panel.

LRO

I also devote computer time to the SETI project by decoding the signals from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico as part of an ongoing program in there search for radio signals from distant star systems, so far Kepler 22b could be promising as scientists are calling it the Earth’s twin.

Arecibo, Puerto Rico

My name and this time a message is also on board a test spacecraft IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) constructed by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)

IKAROS

 IKAROS was successfully launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on May 21st 2011 at 06:58:22, where is it now? well, on December 8th 2011, IKAROS flew by Venus. The distance at closest point to Venus was about 80000km. The monitor cameras took this picture of Venus over the membrane of the solar sail.



My message was: My hopes and dreams for all mankind travel with this craft.