Monthly Archives: May 2021

Faster than light travel is the only way humans could ever get to other stars in a reasonable amount of time. Credit: NASA

The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It is about 4.25 light-years away, or about 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km). The fastest ever spacecraft, the now-in-space Parker Solar Probe will reach a top speed of 450,000 mph. It would take just 20 seconds to go from Los Angeles to New York City at that speed, but it would take the solar probe about 6,633 years to reach Earths nearest neighboring solar system.

If humanity ever wants to travel easily between stars, people will need to go faster than light. But so far, faster-than-light travel is possible only in science fiction.

In Issac Asimovs Foundation series, humanity can travel from planet to planet, star to star or across the universe using jump drives. As a kid, I read as many of those stories as I could get my hands on. I am now a theoretical physicist and study nanotechnology, but I am still fascinated by the ways humanity could one day travel in space.

Some characters like the astronauts in the movies Interstellar and Thor use wormholes to travel between solar systems in seconds. Another approach familiar to Star Trek fans is warp drive technology. Warp drives are theoretically possible if still far-fetched technology. Two recent papers made headlines in March when researchers claimed to have overcome one of the many challenges that stand between the theory of warp drives and reality.

But how do these theoretical warp drives really work? And will humans be making the jump to warp speed anytime soon?

This 2-dimensional representation shows the flat, unwarped bubble of spacetime in the center where a warp drive would sit surrounded by compressed spacetime to the right (downward curve) and expanded spacetime to the left (upward curve). Credit: AllenMcC/Wikimedia Commons

Physicists current understanding of spacetime comes from Albert Einsteins theory of General Relativity. General Relativity states that space and time are fused and that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. General relativity also describes how mass and energy warp spacetime hefty objects like stars and black holes curve spacetime around them. This curvature is what you feel as gravity and why many spacefaring heroes worry about getting stuck in or falling into a gravity well. Early science fiction writers John Campbell and Asimov saw this warping as a way to skirt the speed limit.

What if a starship could compress space in front of it while expanding spacetime behind it? Star Trek took this idea and named it the warp drive.

In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre, a Mexican theoretical physicist, showed that compressing spacetime in front of the spaceship while expanding it behind was mathematically possible within the laws of General Relativity. So, what does that mean? Imagine the distance between two points is 10 meters (33 feet). If you are standing at point A and can travel one meter per second, it would take 10 seconds to get to point B. However, lets say you could somehow compress the space between you and point B so that the interval is now just one meter. Then, moving through spacetime at your maximum speed of one meter per second, you would be able to reach point B in about one second. In theory, this approach does not contradict the laws of relativity since you are not moving faster than light in the space around you. Alcubierre showed that the warp drive from Star Trek was in fact theoretically possible.

Proxima Centauri here we come, right? Unfortunately, Alcubierres method of compressing spacetime had one problem: it requires negative energy or negative mass.

This 2dimensional representation shows how positive mass curves spacetime (left side, blue earth) and negative mass curves spacetime in an opposite direction (right side, red earth). Credit: Tokamac/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Alcubierres warp drive would work by creating a bubble of flat spacetime around the spaceship and curving spacetime around that bubble to reduce distances. The warp drive would require either negative mass a theorized type of matter or a ring of negative energy density to work. Physicists have never observed negative mass, so that leaves negative energy as the only option.

To create negative energy, a warp drive would use a huge amount of mass to create an imbalance between particles and antiparticles. For example, if an electron and an antielectron appear near the warp drive, one of the particles would get trapped by the mass and this results in an imbalance. This imbalance results in negative energy density. Alcubierres warp drive would use this negative energy to create the spacetime bubble.

But for a warp drive to generate enough negative energy, you would need a lot of matter. Alcubierre estimated that a warp drive with a 100-meter bubble would require the mass of the entire visible universe.

In 1999, physicist Chris Van Den Broeck showed that expanding the volume inside the bubble but keeping the surface area constant would reduce the energy requirements significantly, to just about the mass of the sun. A significant improvement, but still far beyond all practical possibilities.

Two recent papers one by Alexey Bobrick and Gianni Martire and another by Erik Lentz provide solutions that seem to bring warp drives closer to reality.

Bobrick and Martire realized that by modifying spacetime within the bubble in a certain way, they could remove the need to use negative energy. This solution, though, does not produce a warp drive that can go faster than light.

Independently, Lentz also proposed a solution that does not require negative energy. He used a different geometric approach to solve the equations of General Relativity, and by doing so, he found that a warp drive wouldnt need to use negative energy. Lentzs solution would allow the bubble to travel faster than the speed of light.

It is essential to point out that these exciting developments are mathematical models. As a physicist, I wont fully trust models until we have experimental proof. Yet, the science of warp drives is coming into view. As a science fiction fan, I welcome all this innovative thinking. In the words of Captain Picard, things are only impossible until they are not.

Written by Mario Borunda, Associate Professor of Physics, Oklahoma State University.

Originally published on The Conversation.

See the article here:

Warp Drives and Negative Energy: Physicists Give Chances of Faster-Than-Light Space Travel a Boost - SciTechDaily

In 2022, LSU will be the first university in the world to put science and research technology on the moon.

The Tiger Eye 1 research mission is part of a multidisciplinary university-industry collaboration to make future space travel safer for people and equipment by providing insight into the complex radiation environment in space. LSUs radiation detection device is now officially on the manifest for the broader IM-1 mission, the first in a series of commercial flights and the first-ever to land on the moon that will bring science and technology to the lunar surface through NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. This will be the first time the U.S. lands on the moon since 1972 and the Apollo program.

Students in five different LSU colleges and schools are leading the charge under the direction of assistant professor Jeffery Chancellor in the LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy, head of its Space Radiation Transport & Applied Nuclear, or SpaRTAN, lab. All are undergraduate seniors from Louisiana:

Katie Hostetler, of Zachary, is a graphic designer who creates art for LSU Athletics and this spring came up with the winning design for the Tiger Eye 1 mission patch; shes double-majoring in religious studies in the LSU School of Art + Design and the LSU College of Humanities & Social Sciences. She graduates in December.

Haley Pellegrin, of Bourg, is a LaSpace Undergraduate Research Fellow and member of the SpaRTAN lab where she develops new technologies to make better radiation shielding in the LSU College of Science. She graduates this month.

Jacob Miller, of Crowley, is an electrical engineering major who builds new devices for medical applications in the LSU College of Engineering and the Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College. He graduates in December.

Were immensely proud of the LSU students leading this work on the frontier of science, technology, art and the human imagination, said Samuel J. Bentley, vice president of research and economic development. Its been incredible to see and support all of LSU coming together to move this mission forward. There should be no barriers to expertise, and this university-industry collaboration is a great example of how the caliber of our students and researchers can advance projects of critical importance to our nation.

This student-led, cross-campus collaboration reinforces LSUs impact on space exploration and planetary science, said Cynthia Peterson, dean of the LSU College of Science. As we prepare to put people on the moon again in 2024, we must not only understand what it takes to protect our astronauts, but also what is required to perform science experiments in a space environment and safeguard the technologies needed to conduct the research.

Through its medical and health physics program and the SpaRTAN lab, LSU helps agencies and companies understand background radiation in space, one of the hard limits on how much time people and equipment can spend out there, beyond the Earths protective magnetic field. Understanding the types and amounts of radiation that exist on the moon will be key to establishing a sustainable human presence on Earths nearest neighbor as well as traveling to Mars. The data brought back by Tiger Eye 1 will further the SpaRTAN labs research on improved radiation shielding in both materials and design.

The IM in IM-1 stands for Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based company pioneering humanitys next step returning the U.S. to the surface of the moon. IM holds NASA and commercial payload contracts for two separate lunar landings through IM-1 in the first quarter of 2022 and IM-2 in the fourth quarter to help pave the way for the Artemis program, which will put the first woman and the first person of color on the moon as early as 2024.

The CLPS flights are all uncrewed and will make use of rovers and robots to conduct science experiments and test technologies in different areas on the lunar surface. Intuitive Machines is providing the vehicle, communication network and mission operations center for LSUs device to safely land on the moon and effectively conduct research.

IMs Nova-C lunar lander will be launched from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The solar battery-driven vehicle will spend two weeks on the surface before succumbing to lunar night, not far from Tranquility Base where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the moon in July 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission.

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For Hostetler, the design of the mission patch didnt feel as new as it felt familiar. In a recent LSU Art + Design profile, she shared how her first opportunity to send art into space actually arrived already in fifth grade.

It was a contest to design a flag to go into space and I was really far ahead in the contest but ended up in second place, Hostetler said. So, when my professor, Courtney Barr, came to me with the Tiger Eye 1 opportunity, I was like, Fifth-grade me would be proud. My mom was especially excited.

Barr recruited seven undergraduate and graduate art students to come up with 19 different design ideas for the space patch. After careful vetting and input from the other students on his team, Chancellor chose one of Hostetlers designs, which features a fierce but protective tiger eye overlooking a spacecraft landing on the moon, because he appreciated the symbolism and also because it looked awesome.

The patch is an important symbol because it includes everyone on the team, Chancellor said. Folks like Danielle Cintron, Darya Courville, Greg Trahan, Shemeka Law and countless others at LSU have worked really hard behind the scenes to make Tiger Eye 1 possible. Space missions do not happen entirely in a vacuum and the patch itself helps to represent that idea.

I came up with a few different versions, but Im so glad he picked this one; its my favorite, Hostetler said.

With an eye on IM-2, Chancellor expects to call on Hostetler and the LSU Art + Design team again soon. Intuitive Machines will bring an ice drill and use a small drone ship to explore hard-to-reach areas on the moon and test the Nokia 4G LTE network, while LSU is considering sending up a larger and more robust radiation detector, based on lessons to be learned on IM-1.

When it comes to shielding materials and design, the vast spectrum of radiation in space doesnt lend itself to easy or particularly intuitive solutions. Adding more shielding or encasing everything in lead isnt an option in space. Not only would this add too much mass and cost; shielding in the wrong place could also slow down the radiation particles to the extent theyd get trapped inside the space vehicle or the human body, causing devastating damage to astronauts and equipment.

Sometimes minimal shielding is the safest option and the LSU SpaRTAN labs research will continue to help the aerospace industry find out exactly where, when and how to effectively use it.

The two main barriers for human spaceflight are propulsion how to get there faster and how to protect humans and equipment from radiation, said retired Col. Jack 2fish Fischer, astronaut and vice president of strategic programs at Intuitive Machines. Without the shielding and radiation modeling LSU is helping to develop, the radiation effects on crews and equipment during deep space exploration would be catastrophic.

Using Jeff Chancellors ability to model this stuff and figure out what kind of shielding to use and where to put it, we see a future where it will be much easier and cheaper to go into space because we could open the lunar and space economy to a global supply chain, Fischer continued. We could put commercial, off-the-shelf technology out there and lessen the dependency on expensive, overdesigned solutions. The radiation data well get on IM-1 will change the equation of whats possible in space.

As the Tiger Eye 1 team works to get everything ready for launch, something else just came up the LSU SpaRTAN lab will be flying yet another radiation detector on SpaceXs Inspiration4 mission using their Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft this September, in collaboration with Pinsky. That mission includes Hayley Arceneaux, who went to school in West Feliciana. It will launch from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida and be the worlds first all-commercial, all-civilian mission to space. It will circle the Earth before making a soft water landing off the Florida coast.

The rest is here:

LSU student from Zachary provide work that will make NASA mission to moon in 2022 - The Advocate

Trait Thompson and Elizabeth M. B. Bass , Special for The Oklahoman| Oklahoman

As NASA makes strides toward Mars, and private companies examine the idea of commercial space travel, it is a good time to look back at the history of human exploration of space and the significant role that Oklahomans have played in that endeavor.

The Launch to Landing: Oklahomans and Space exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center tells the stories of the intrepid Oklahomans who have impacted the exploration of space.

One such Oklahoman is Dr. Shannon Lucid.

Lucid was born in Shanghai, China, where her parents served as missionaries. Her parents later moved the family to Bethany, Oklahoma, which she considers her hometown. After graduating from Bethany High School in 1960, she attended the University of Oklahoma and earned her degree in chemistry.

Later recounting her graduate school experience she said, When I went to graduate school, they didn't want females in graduate school. They were very open about it. They didn't mince their words. But then I got in and I got my degree.

She went on get her doctorate in biochemistry from OU.

After beginning her career as a senior laboratory technician at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, she was chosen for the astronaut program in 1978. She was selected as a part of the first group of female astronauts with trailblazers such as Sally Ride, Judith Resnick and Kathryn Sullivan. In 1979 she qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on space shuttle flights.

Her first space flight was in 1985. Her last mission in 1996 delivered her to and from the Russian Mir space station, where she spent 188 days performing life science and physical science experiments.

She has logged a total of 5,354 hours in space and holds the record for the most flight hours in orbit for a woman. Over the course of her career as an astronaut, she was a part of fivedifferent missions to space, more than any other Oklahoman in the space program.

"Basically, all my life I'd been told you can't do that because you're female," Lucid said. "So I guess I just didn't pay any attention. I just went ahead and did what I could and then, when the stars aligned, I was ready.

Shannon Lucids achievements as an astronaut and scientist epitomize the Oklahoma spirit of hard work, determination innovation and exploration. We look forward to seeing how the next generation of Oklahomans make their mark in the final frontier.

Trait Thompson is executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Elizabeth Bass is the societys director of publications and editor of The Chronicles of Oklahoma. They are Connecting the Dots of history to provide a better understanding of where we have been and where we are going as a community.

See the article here:

Connecting the Dots of History: Recognizing an Oklahoman's contribution to the U.S. space program - Oklahoman.com

NASAs new telescope has a considerable mission on its hands: to peer deeper into space and further back in time than any spacecraft ever has before.

Thirty-one years after the Hubble Space Telescope was sent into low-orbit, the brand new James Webb Space Telescope is undergoing final tests before its launch on October 31st.

The Webb telescope is designed to probe the history of our cosmos. It will investigate how galaxies, black holes and planets were formed, and whether there might be life out there in the universe.

Webb's infrared capability means it can see into dust clouds that conceal forming stars and planets and learn how those stars are born, explains Eric Smith, a program scientist on the project.

Webb's innovative multi-object spectrograph will pick out thousands of individual galaxies from many epics in the universe's history to see how they change over time, he adds.

Technological ingenuity notwithstanding, the development of the telescope has not been without its problems.

Originally conceived in 1996 with a launch date planned for 2007, the telescope has been beset with delays and ballooned in cost to over $10 billion (8.2 million) during that time.

Still, as the telescope prepares for its journey to a point 1.6 million kilometres from Earth, scientists on the project are excited about the enormous potential to enhance our understanding of the universe.

"The discovery capability of Webb is limited only by our own imaginations, says Smith. Scientists around the world will soon be using this general-purpose observatory to take us places we haven't dreamed of going before."

Link:

The $10 billion Space telescope that will help us travel back in time - Euronews

Helen Sharman joined Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev on a space mission in 1991

It is 30 years since the first British person went into space.

Dr Helen Sharman, a scientist from Sheffield, travelled to the Soviet space station Mir on 18 May 1991.

She was a 27-year-old chemist when she was chosen to be part of Project Juno - a plan to pay for someone from Britain to travel into space. The UK government wasn't involved in space exploration at the time, so paying for a spot on a flight was the only way to travel to space.

Sharman was one of 13,000 people who responded to an advert on the radio. From all those entrants, four people were put forward for training in Russia.

After spending 18 months training at the Soviet cosmonaut training camp, Star City, Helen enjoyed an eight-day mission in space.

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While she was in space she did medical and agricultural experiments.

She said she felt really lucky to be chosen for the mission and would love to go back to space.

One of her favourite things was floating around on the space station because of the lack of gravity.

Helen has said that she thinks aliens do exist and might even be on Earth!

Since coming back to Earth she has carried on her scientific work and now works at Imperial College London.

She was also honoured by the Queen in the 2018 New Year's honours list and joined the Order of St Michael and St George, which is a special award for people who have done important things.

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Helen Sharman: Thirty years since first Briton went to space - BBC News

Dolphins that glow neon. Manatees and manta rays shining the brightest of blues. Fluorescent fish that kerplunk into your kayak. These may sound like visions only possible in whimsical dreams, but this natural wonder is absolutely real at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. The window of opportunity to experience this underwater phenomenon is small, so read on to learn how to infuse a little magic into your summer family vacation plans.

From June to October, the water at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Florida's Merritt Island glows blue because of single-cell bioluminescent organisms that gather here annually. The resulting unusual light show gives the illusion the world has turned upside-down and you're paddling through comets, shooting stars and fireworks when viewed from a kayak.

Bioluminescence feels more like something out of a sci-fi movie than a reality, but it's one of nature's most incredible phenomena. It's the ability of a living organism to create and emit light. When these organisms move through the water, they create a dreamy glowing effect that allows you to see fish underwater at night.

Edith Widder, founder of the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, says the bloom is consistent in this location because it happens in an estuary that tends to be protected and stable.

For the most memorable way to experience the glow, book a Get Up and Go Kayaking excursion. Your paddle will glow as you maneuver through the waterways and the natural flow of water will illuminate the organisms. The clear bottoms of their kayaks allow you to see what's below, as well as what's all around you.They launch from the northwest side of Haulover Canal, which is an area that's home to large manatee and dolphin populations, making it very likely they'll make an appearance during your ride.

For bioluminescence at its brightest, book your trip in July or August. The best nights for viewing are the darkest with a moon phase that's at 55% or less. Get Up and Go Kayaking has a handy calendar on their website to help you plan the best date for your experience.

Merritt Island is also home to NASA'S Kennedy Space Center. Kids who are intrigued by space travel will flip over the Visitor Complex that's organized into Mission Zones with attractions and tours grouped by chronological era. You'll leave with a good understanding of the history of humans in space, from the dawn of exploration to current missions.

If luck is on your side, you'll even get to meet an astronaut or experience an unmanned rocket blast from the space center or from the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

For ideas on where to stay, NASA's website has a comprehensive list of hotel options that fit a wide range of budgets. If you decide to fly vs. road trip, book your flights into Orlando International Airport (MCO).

Maria Chambers

Featured photo: Credit Tony Catalano

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Starship lifts off to conduct a high-altitude test mission in Texas; this same rocket type will make an orbital test flight and come down near Hawaii. Image: SpaceX

A filing made with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been made public: the paperwork shows that SpaceXs large spacecraft, Starship, is due to make its first orbital flight lifting off from Texas and landing near Hawaii.

According to the document available on the FCC website, the orbital test flight will lift off from Starbase, Texas. The starbase is located at SpaceXs Boca Chica complex just north of the Rio Grande River on the Gulf Coast, just above the U.S. / Mexico border. The facility is just below the popular tourist destination, South Padre Island.

At approximately 170 seconds after lift-off in Texas, the Booster Stage of the Starship rocket will separate and perform a partial return. It is due to land in the Gulf of Mexico roughly 20 miles from the shore.

While the booster returns to water, the Orbital Starship will continue to fly up and out away from Texas, flying over the Gulf of Mexico and eventually through the Florida Straits. From there, it will achieve orbit.

When the orbiting test flight is complete, SpaceX plans to perform a powered, targeted landing roughly 62 miles off the northwest coast of Kauai and conduct a soft ocean landing there.

In the paperwork filed with the FCC, SpaceX said they intend to collect as much data as possible during flight to quantify entry dynamics and better understand what the vehicle experiences in a flight regime that is extremely difficult to accurately predict or replicate computationally. To do this, SpaceX filed with the FCC to gain their blessing to use on-board telemetry systems to radio data to ground stations from both the Orbital and Booster stages of the rocket. This data will anchor any changes in vehicle designand build better models for us to use in our internal simulations.

SpaceXs fifth high-altitude flight test of Starship from Starbase in Texas pic.twitter.com/FnrXuHpsVj

SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 13, 2021

Hawaii isnt a stranger to being home to space travel innovations.Located on the summit of Mauna Kea,13 independent multi-national astronomical research facilitiespeer into the sky to study different aspects of space. Nearby volcano Mauna Loa is also home to the HI-SEAS lab. Short for Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, HI-SEAS is a habitat on an isolated Mars-like site on the Mauna Loa side of the saddle area on the Big Island of Hawaii at approximately 8,200 feet above sea level. Through last year, studies were done with people who would live there for months at a time in a Mars-like environment. The site is being transformed now to simulate moon-based missions planned by the U.S. in the years ahead. NASA has been working on a variety of initiatives in Hawaii due to its unique location, terrain, and volcanic geology for projects ranging from robotics to space materials sciences. Hawaii was also home for famed astronaut Ellison Onizuka; born in Kealakekua, Hawaii, Onizuka became the first Asian American in space and the first person of Japanese ancestry to reach Space. He flew on Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-51-C and served as a Mission Specialist for STS-51-L, the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger mission that exploded shortly after take-off. Many places are named in honor of Onizuka in Hawaii, including the Big Islands Kona International Airport which is officially known as the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport. In 2019, building a mini spaceport was considered outside of Hilo; project stakeholders ultimately decided not to move forward with that project.

We reached out to Rodrigo Romo at PISCES for comment. Romo serves as Program Director for the Hilo, Hawaii-based Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES), a state-funded aerospace agency operating under the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT). PISCES core mission is to develop and grow the aerospace industry in Hawaii through Applied Research, Workforce Development and Economic Development initiatives according to their mission statement.

When asked about SpaceXs plans to land near Hawaii, Romo said, I think its outstanding. It gives Hawaii another opportunity to participate in the aerospace realm.

The FCC filing doesnt elaborate on what happens with the Orbital Starship after it makes a targeted, soft ocean landing. SpaceX didnt return a request for comment as of press time. But should they attempt a barge landing like they do with their Falcon 9 rockets, Romo is very excited. If SpaceX can land their spacecraft on a barge around Hawaii, Hawaii ports could be used to service it. If waters around Hawaii are used for future SpaceX missions, Romo said this could open possibilities for job creation in the space industry in Hawaii.

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SpaceX Files Paperwork for First Spaceship Orbital Flight: Texas to Hawaii - Weatherboy

The rain lasered in sideways at Nowlan Park on Sunday. The sort of spiteful downpour that comes looking for you, no matter how well you think youre covered by the lip of the stand. And it was cold too. League cold. February cold. Cold enough to make you think that the folks feeling weepy about having to watch on GAAGo should colour themselves blessed. Make me a hurling spectator, Lord - but not yet.

Hurling is its own heat source, of course. Even though the game Kilkenny and Antrim served up didnt turn out to be particularly close in the end, it still rocked and rolled for long enough to make you stop noticing the weather. Kilkenny even looked to be trying out new modes of expression for themselves.

They were flicking and tricking, laying off first-time volleys to overlapping runners, drawing defenders this way before handpassing off the stick that way. They looked to be - and this is still Brian Codys team, so lets not overegg it here - but they looked to be hurling for the fun of it.

Fun. Sport as fun. Its such a forgotten thought. We spend so much time being so determinedly serious about everything these days that it feels like letting the side down almost to even consider the idea.

And yet, look at David Cliffords reaction to his hat-trick goal on Saturday for Kerry against Galway. He ran back to his position smiling like a loon. Not because he had scored his first senior hat-trick and not because it put the game well out of Galways reach. But because making a whole intercounty defence look like theyre gone headlong down a waterslide with one simple drag-back is, at its heart, a lot of fun.

The snooker player Terry Griffiths was asked away back in the 80s what he thought explained the popularity of sport. Not just his sport, which was massive at the time, but all sport. His answer was that if you find yourself walking past a snooker table with a couple of balls sitting out, its virtually impossible to stop yourself trying to roll one of them into a pocket. Just to see can you do it. Just for the fun of it. Thats what sport amounts to.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the ultimate just-for-the-fun-of-it sporting event. It wasnt a competition and in fact that act itself wasnt even completed with any great proficiency. But for the sheer kick of trying something, its hard to fathom how it will never be beaten. It was, of course, the golf shot on the moon.

Alan Shepard was the first American in space. He was one of only 12 people ever to stand on the surface of the moon. He fought in the Pacific during World War II, became an admiral in both the Navy and Nasa and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour. But to golfers, hell always be the guy who took two golf balls to the moon and swung a six-iron at them.

Well, kind of a six-iron. It was actually the head of a six-iron attached to a thing called the Contingency Sample Return Container - basically the long tool the astronauts used to collect moondust to bring home with them. He got Jack Harden, the local pro in his club in Houston, to design an attachment and stuck the head of the six iron in the thigh pocket of his space suit, along with two range balls. That was the easy bit.

The hard bit was not getting thrown off the rocket for even thinking of it. Shepard was heading up on Apollo 14, the first space mission after the near-disaster that would later be immortalised in the Tom Hanks movie Apollo 13. Americans were starting to get antsy when it came to space travel, unsure if it was really worth all the money that was being spent on it and petrified that one of these missions was going to end in fatalities.

So when Shepard had the idea of hitting a golf shot on the moon, he got a very short and very direct answer from the mission leader Bob Gilruth. Absolutely no way, Gilruth said. Imagine the howls of disgust if something went wrong while Shepard was out there attempting to satisfy his inner Bobby Jones. It could shut down the space programme in a single stroke.

Shepard wouldnt let it go, though. He wanted to scratch an itch, to see how far a ball would go in zero gravity. So he made a deal with Gilruth. If we have screwed up, if we have had equipment failure, anything has gone wrong on the surface where you are embarrassed or we are embarrassed, I will not do it. I will not be so frivolous.

I want to wait until the very end of the mission, stand in front of the television camera, whack these golf balls with this makeshift club, fold it up, stick it in my pocket, climb up the ladder, close the door and were gone.

Gilruth was reluctant but he gave it his blessing in the end. And so, on February 6th 1971, just before jumping back up to the steps of the lunar module and heading back to earth, Shepard pulled out the two range balls and threw them down on the sandy surface at his feet. He took out his modified six-iron and addressed the first one. Because his suit was so cumbersome, he was only ever going to be able to swing one-handed. But swing he did.

The first was a shank. The ball had nestled a bit and he couldnt get much of a contact. But he set the second one up on a little hillock - I figured nobody was going to quote the rules of golf to me from a quarter-million miles away, he said later - and caught it much better. Its gone miles and miles and miles, he famously said. In reality, it only went about 40 yards. But still.

We can get so bogged down in sport at times. So attached to the right way of doing things, to best practice, to What Good Looks Like. And all of it is important, obviously it is.

But 50 years ago, a guy who frequently did as much po-faced achieving in a day as most of us will do in a lifetime went out and dropped a couple of balls and played golf on the moon. Just for the fun of it.

Now thats a sportsman.

Excerpt from:

Malachy Clerkin: Sport is all about fun - like hitting a golf ball on the moon - The Irish Times