Sunday, May 29, 2005





This deserves a look:

"It's kinda trippy to stare at this image and then think about what the guys in the Apollo space program did. They went all the way over there, no really. They went that far away from the nearest McDonald's."

Now imagine how distant Mars would be on that scale!

(And for whatever it's worth, you can never be too far away from McDonald's.)

4 comments:

Gerald T said...

I have thought of this before, just the idea that you are in a little tin can, with paper thin aluminum walls, surrounded by vacuum and freaking hundreds of thousands of miles away from the green fields of earth. Utterly dependent on the mechanical equipment of the spaceship for survival, no hope of rescue if anything goes wrong…how would that feel?

razorsmile said...

I have thought of this before, just the idea that you are in a little tin can, with paper thin aluminum walls, surrounded by vacuum and freaking hundreds of thousands of miles away from the green fields of earth. Utterly dependent on the mechanical equipment of the spaceship for survival, no hope of rescue if anything goes wrong … how would that feel?

It changes you like nothing else can. Hopefully, that's a feeling we won't lose when going to Jupiter only takes a week.

Also, the McDonald's quote reminds me of Arthur Dent's reaction to the annihilation of Earth.

Ken Younos said...

(And for whatever it's worth, you can never be too far away from McDonald's.)

...Which is why I'm certain that there will be a McDonald's on the moon in the near future (complete with ol' Ronald McDonald out front in a space suit). Hurrah for space tourism.

W.M. Bear said...

gerald t -- Yes, I know I'd start thinking like that, white-knuckle, infrequent flyer that I am. Which is probably one of many reasons why I'm not an astronaut. It's just one small step from that thought to no one hearing you scream.