"Andy Rooney Plays Space Cowboy"

[thedrifter]

"Andy Rooney Plays Space Cowboy"

Posted by Roger Burdick
Tuesday, January 27, 2004


Andy Rooney published a column on the CBSnews.com website Sunday titled ''Ground Control to Mr. Bush,'' and it more or less derided the ambitious Mars exploration project the President touted in his State of the Union speech. Mr. Rooney is a seriously clueless individual and this column proves it.

When Bush spoke about this Mars exploration, he didn?t say it would happen today, or next week, or even next month. But the Democrats, such as Rooney, are using it as an excuse to bash the President for ignoring national issues in favor of space exploration that will help benefit his corporate buddies.

Mr. Rooney likes to think he?s a wit, but I think he?s about half of that. He claims the Democrats would love to see Mr. Bush be the first on Mars, and I agree with that part because the Democrats can?t beat him in America they might, just maybe, stand a chance of beating him on Mars. Rooney then suggests Laura Bush should be first lady of Mars.

After the bashing of the President, Rooney gets into serious trouble with his logic of space exploration. I have a clue for you, Andy: leave space to people who know what it is. Rooney starts off his observations of space exploration by writing, ''Space exploration hasn't produced much for us except some good pictures.'' I guess not, when you don?t count the scientific value of moon rocks, pictures of Earth from space that help with climate and weather predicting, finding new mineral deposits, helping control the environment by taking pictures of the Earth, evaluating areas, etc. Then, of course, the inventions used in space exploration like imaging processes that were developed for NASA that are used in medicine and has helped save thousands of lives. Also of note is the fire resistant fabrics firefighters use and the plastics we use in packaging.

After totally ignoring the items that space exploration has brought into a person?s everyday life, Rooney then gets scientific. He claims ''scientists have said that it would probably be a one-way trip for whoever made it, because gravity on Mars is so strong that it would be impossible to bring along enough fuel for them to take off and return to Earth.'' It was at this point that I realized the brain cells in this man?s head were denser than the gravity of Jupiter. I?m not a rocket scientist but that statement made no sense. If it were true, then our instruments on Mars would be crushed by their own weight.

I cheated and looked it up in my old college astronomy book. Yes, I still have the majority of my college textbooks, and why not? I paid for them! Anyway, I knew Mars was smaller than Earth so the gravity had to be less. Sure enough, Mars has one-tenth the mass of Earth and 38% of the gravity of Earth. So it would take less energy to achieve escape velocity on Mars than it would take on Earth. So I?m thinking maybe we can get a donation going for some fuel to get Andy Rooney into space; it?s time he meets his mothership.

Here?s the link to Andy Rooney?s story.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004...ain595141.shtml

Here?s a link on a manned Mars mission and how to blast off the surface of Mars.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/marsretu.html

Here are two links on the inventions developed for space exploration that have helped our lives.

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/shuttle.htm

http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/spinoffs2.htm