On Alert for Armageddon...
with eyes peeled to the heavens
So, just in case you didn’t read last week’s newsletter - although I can’t for the life of me imagine why you wouldn’t, but maybe that’s just me - we talked about the mighty power of Awe and the lens through which we see our respective worlds. I say “our respective worlds” because that’s exactly how it works. You see your world and I see mine. No two realities are alike, and in that sense, everything we perceive to be real, to be truth, is that to each of us but no one else, at least not in the same way. In other words, for all you Matrix fans out there, “there is no spoon.” Think about that for a second.
Over the past few days, prompted in large part by my reaction to the news of the week as I perceived it, I decided to heed my own advice and change my lens. If you’ve followed this space over the weeks and months - and, if not, why not? But I digress - you know, I take these flights of fancy every now and then just to reassure myself that there’s more to life than attempted coups characterized as “guided tours for curious patriots,” political corruption and shenigans, mass shootings, and disappearing retirement funds.
I’ve actually become fairly adept at recognizing the warning signs of my own saturation level regarding such things. It usually begins with mild nausea accompanied by a virtual dark cloud looming ever lower overhead and a pattern of unconscious Google searches for “best places to live off the grid.” The answer, by the way, is Alaska according to the website Zero & Zen, which also lists Vieques Island in Puerto Rico as a prime loner spot. I must admit, the description had me scanning the Vieques real estate pages.
“Living off the grid on a paradise island sounds like a dream come true. One of the reasons people choose this place to live off the grid is that Vieques is secluded. So, you’ll be able to disconnect from modern society, enjoy the beauty of nature, and live more relaxed. Since it’s not a tourist destination yet, this amazing island is not crowded at all. The local community does live off the grid, so it will be easy to start your off-grid lifestyle in this location.” Zero & Zen
Funny, I kept thinking Vieques sounded familiar and a quick trip to Wiki reminded me why. The alluring sales pitch left a couple of things out, as in - “Great getaway as long as you’re willing to put up with a little radioactivity and undetonated ordinace left behind by the U.S. Navy.” For 60-years, until 2003, the island was a primary bombing range and weapons testing ground and, apparently, the clean-up and restoration is going, let’s just say, slowly. You won’t find that in the brochure.
Alas, not loving the extreme cold or excessive radioactivity, I begrudgingly chose to remain tethered to the insufferable grid and, instead, explore a virtual getaway from the safe, largely warm but not radioactive, confines of my office just outside New York City. After weighing my options, I ended up on a trip through outer space.
Up, Up, and Away…
In the Summer of 1998, many of us were captivated by the story of a Texas-sized asteroid hurtling towards Earth with impact expected 18 days later. All of civilization soon to be destroyed, unless, that is, a group of rag-tag oil drillers turned astronauts led by Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck could land on it, drill a hole into the asteroid, insert a nuclear weapon and blow it up. In a nutshell, that was the basic premise of the movie Armageddon, not to be confused with another 1998 movie, Deep Impact, which is basically the same movie except the asteroid has been replaced by a sexier 7-mile wide comet on a collision course with the planet that is also expected to wipe out all of mankind. Together, the movies grossed almost $1 Billion Dollars in worldwide box office. Which is why…
Killer astroids/comets out to destroy Earth are a Hollywood staple. Some have called them the westerns of the Sci-Fi genre owing to rigid sameness of plot and premise over the decades from the first to the last. The most recent, of course, Don’t Look Up, offered a satirical, politically infused take, but it was still a movie that featured a monster rogue comet on it’s way to kill us all.
So what does all this have to do with anything? Well, it’s where this little journey began, starting with a question posed by CBS News’ science reporter, David Pogue, on his podcast, Unsung Science as to the actual possibility of an asteroid strike on the order of those created by Hollywood. Given that 2023 is the 25-year anniversary of the release of the aformentioned space action thrillers, and, because scientists tell us it was just such a strike that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, it seemed like a legit query. A little fearful, fully engaged, with imagination running wild at the very notion, I dove in and away I went.
Now, before you scoff and jump to conclusions, were you aware that there IS a federal agency called the “Planetary Defense Coordination Office,” that exists specfically to watch out for killer asteroids and comets? I did not know that but it’s true. It’s a division of NASA established in January, 2016. Ok, I’ve got your attention and I’m betting that smirk has been replaced by a slightly furrowed brow and a deeper focus on the words on the page. Uh huh. Thought so bub. The good news is the PDCO doesn’t believe there’s another dinosaur level event in the offing anytime soon, whew! However, before you say “I told you so,” in November 2021 NASA launched something called Dart, described as being…
“…the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.” NASA.gov
Dart was a six-foot by 3-foot, vending machine shaped, spacecraft that came with a price tag of $314 Million Dollars and was designed for one purpose - to smash into something. You see, as any expert of such things will tell you, blowing up a bothersome asteroid or comet is really not an option for all kinds of reasons - great sexy, action-packed movie premise, to be sure, but pure fantasy. What NASA and others came to figure out was, if confronted by such a horrific reality, the best thing that could be done would be to either move the giant rock a few feet off its orbit or at least slow it down just a tad to give planet Earth a chance to skedaddle out of the target zone. Dart was NASA’s first attempt to see if this was even remotely possible. And here’s where it gets truly amazing, or should I say…Awesome!
Once the decision was made to test the “nudge” theory, the scientists at NASA chose an known asteroid, Didymos, that orbits in an area called the “asteroid belt” between Mars and Jupiter. Two quick caveats here. First, they strongly believed the existence of the asteroid based on a faint pixel seen through one of three high powered telescopes they employ to monitor such things - yes, they’re always watching; and secondly, the target wasn’t really the asteroid itself but a much smaller moon, called Dimorphos, they believed was orbiting around it based on an even fainter shadow they were able to see passing in front of the asteroid at regular intervals. Dart’s November 2021 launch began a 10-month, 7-million mile journey that sent the rocket powered vending machine blasting through space at 14,000 miles per hour.
Just to pull this altogether…you have a huge asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter 7 million miles away with a moon revolving around it about every 12 hours. You have a boxy spacecraft making its way on a 7 million mile journey hoping to hit said moon, which is about 569 feet wide, that NASA “believes” is there but can’t be sure since it hasn’t really seen it. Oh, and Dart is cruising along at a cool 4 miles per second meaning there’s no room for error. How is this even in the realm of possibilities? And yet…
On September 26th, 2022, with a small satellite bearing witness in the distance, Dart made a direct hit on Dimorphos (also called Didymoon) resulting in an orbit around the larger asteroid 22 minutes shorter than before. Mission Accomplished!
Maybe Plato Had it Right…
As I emerged from my all too short, virtual vacation with shock and awe beginning to wane, I couldn’t help but wonder how it is that we live in such a bifurcated “reality.” On the one hand, so much of what we see and hear these days seems incredibly backwards, unenlightened, and uncivilized. And yet, on the other hand, almost daily there are near super human accomplishments and advances happening, like Dart, made possible by those whose focus seems to be directed to a much higher plane. I suppose to solely focus on either is to distort whatever reality it is we perceive and yet I can’t help but wonder why the behaviors prompted by our lesser angels seem to dominate that motivated by our higher ones. Maybe Plato had the answer…
In his Allegory of the Cave he describes a group of people who have lived their entire lives as prisoners chained to the wall of a cave and who perceive the shadows they see projected against the wall opposite them to be their only reality. They have no recognition that the shadows are simply reflections of activities happening outside their vision because they’ve never experienced anything else. Plato goes on to describe what would happen if the prisoners were suddenly released and exposed to the rest of the world. He surmises almost all the prisoners would feel great pain caused by the new exposure, deny the world newly seen, and retreat to the familiarity of the only reality they’d ever known - shadows and bondage.
I think the moral here is that we all need to do our part to broaden horizons and recalibrate the balance of information in the zeitgeist. It’s important we elevate and celebrate those things that give evidence of a higher purpose. Work to provide insight into those achievements and accomplishments that show the true potential of man and womankind, and not simply flood the zone of our conversations, our reporting and information sharing, with the lowest common denominators of society. Spend some time uplifting instead of piling on. Make a conscious choice to balance our speech and avoid the human default of negativity. Make the mission a priority and not an afterthought. It’s something we all can do and over time it WILL make a difference in the collective outlook contained within our respective realities. There are so many stories out there that contain the common denominators, no matter your personal bias, of wonder and amazement. Stories that compel you to see and think beyond those shadows on the wall. Stories that leave you in Awe.