Air Sucks!

Air Sucks!
©Mar 2014 Dale Alan Bryant

    Keyboard Bill Cosby once posed a question in the title of one of his early, classic albums of stand-up comedy – ‘Why is there air?’ I used to listen to Cosby as a kid and I once told myself that if I ever found the answer to his question, I'd let him know - well, I hope you're reading this, Bill!...
 
 To answer Bill's question, let's start with another fundamental question: “What is air?” In the Earth's case, air is its atmosphere - a blanket of various gases approximately 250 miles deep surrounding its outer crust. Air can be any gas, or combination thereof. Earth's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, carbon dioxide and argon - but also contains a highly questionable component - oxygen, at 21%. Most planetary atmospheres contain very little oxygen if any, and indeed, the early Earth's atmosphere contained none. Earth's oxygen (O2) is mainly a by-product of living organisms, specifically vegetation. Vegetation converts the ambient CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere into oxygen, which higher forms of life have been adapted to utilize.
 The ‘Great Oxygenation period, as it is known, occurred sometime during the Cambrian period of the Paleozoic era some 542 million years ago, just preceding the ‘Cambrian Explosion’ of life. During this period, vegetation began to spread worldwide, which in turn began producing an abundance of oxygen. Only simple, unicellular life forms existed before this time which had no need of the nasty stuff! Nevertheless, as more-complex multicellular forms arose, they began to adapt to the increased oxygen levels generated by the abundance of early plant life. The present level of oxygen in our atmosphere is, as mentioned, 21%, but it actually got as high as 61% during the reign of the great reptiles, the dinosaurs. By this time, living organisms had begun to utilize oxygen so efficiently, and it was so abundant, that a general trend toward growth and increased size of multicellular forms of life took place - fossilized spiders have been found measuring up to 3 ft. across!
    (Egads, I'm feeling a little faint...)

   Now, earlier, I inferred that oxygen was a bit on the nasty side. Well, fond of the stuff as you may be, this is true. Oxygen is not an inert gas; it is highly reactive, corrosive and poisonous and is almost entirely responsible for all of the corrosion, rusting and decay that takes place on our Earth. As a rule, an atmosphere - and especially one containing oxygen, is not a good thing for anything that comes into contact with it - nor is it even the norm in the universe (the near-vacuum of space is the norm; an average cubic-inch of space contains only around 10 hydrogen atoms and a stray photon or two.)
    So where did all this air come from? Almost all of our solar system’s planets and moons have some type of atmosphere with varying compositions and thicknesses. As the Earth was beginning to cool, shortly after its formation, gases trapped within its rocky mantle and outer crust began to escape through cracks and vents (this is called ‘outgassing’) to uniformly surround the planet. Moreover, because of our atmosphere, conditions here on Earth are just right for the continual re-shaping of its surface.
 
  Air holds both moisture and heat. Moisture, combined with oxygen, causes things to corrode and anything containing iron to rust. Air is also the source of erosion, brought on by rain and wind continually reshaping the planet's surface. Moreover, moisture and heat combined support microorganisms that cause disease and decay. Only in space can the destructive forces of an atmosphere be avoided entirely. Space is cold, dry and still. Nothing can ever rot, burn or erode in space; even food will remain eternally "fresh" there. Moreover, our metallic robot explorers, like Pioneers 10 & 11 and the Voyager spacecraft, launched in the 1970's, are in pristine condition - as new and shiny as the day they were built. (Too bad they didn’t realize this back in 1957 - they could've put a ‘57 Chevy right off the assembly line into orbit and today it’d be in factory-new condition!)
  Now, Earth’s moon has no atmosphere, making conditions on its surface the same as they are in space. Instruments left on the surface, by the astronauts of the Apollo program are in new condition and some are still in working order. Because there is no wind or rain, the boot prints of the astronauts left in the lunar dust are as fresh and crisp as the day they were imprinted there - and will remain so for millions of years to come. Only the extremely slow accumulation of meteoritic dust on the ground, coming from space, will dull their outlines slightly after many millenniums.
    On Earth - and perhaps only on Earth - we have atmospheric conditions that are both conducive and detrimental to life. Oxygen reacts with nearly everything that it touches and is highly flammable. Oxygen fuels our campfires and our spacecraft; liquid oxygen (LOX) has been used in our rockets, from the German V-2, the U.S. Mercury and Gemini program's Redstone, Delta, Agena and Atlas boosters, the Apollo program’s Saturn-V booster, to the Space Shuttle’s triple-engine booster.
  Currently, other astrobiologists, using data from the Kepler Space Telescope, are focusing on searching for exoplanets possessing atmospheres with at least some oxygen content that might support some form of life and that lie within a certain distance from their host suns, termed the habitable, or ‘Goldilocks Zone’. This is a reasonable approach, since most of the only forms of life that we know of - Earth life - utilize both of those conditions. The breadth of the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ in our own solar system runs from Venus out to about Jupiter; Earth is about in the middle.
 
   Nevertheless, with life being as adaptable as we have seen it to be (filling niches from the deepest super-hot oceanic vents to as deep as a mile into the Antarctic ice sheet), we may need to modify our current models of ‘acceptable’ atmospheric content and habitable zone widths.
 Oxygen - and 'Goldilocks' - aren’t necessarily the only shows in town...

E=mc WHAT?!

 E=mc WHAT?!               
May 2012 by Dale Bryant

 Folks, this is a lot easier than you think it is and we're going to demonstrate that together right now before you even get to dessert...
 
 The algebraic equation "E=mc2" is an expression from the first part of Albert Einstein's relativity theory, "The Special Theory of Relativity" which he published in 1905 (his "General Theory of Relativity" was published in 1915) - and here's what he was talking about:
  Although neither matter (mass)
nor energy can be created or destroyed, one can be converted into the other. Think of this as how matter is 'relative' to energy and vice-versa. Einstein showed that matter was, in fact, a form of stored up energy. Einstein's intent was to show that matter and energy are just different states of the same thing, in the same way that ice, water and steam are different states of the same thing. However, the conversion of matter to energy is accomplished through a violent nuclear chain reaction, or, reaction which takes place in the nucleus of an atom and involves tremendous amounts of heat transfer. Now let's take, for instance, an atom of zinc in a penny - one atom setting off a reaction in its nearest neighboring atom and so on and so on, but all of the atoms in the penny converting almost simultaneously. Gamma radiation, or, gamma rays (radiation with a shorter wavelength and even more energetic than x-rays, well above the ultra-violet end of the electromagnetic spectrum) was the first energy to be converted to matter in the lab some time ago, further validating Einsteinian relativity.
 Please pardon any unit substitutions I may use throughout; I use them for familiarity purposes only. The basic premise and magnitude remains unchanged. "E" stands for energy in the form of ergs or joules units. Now ergs and joules aren't units too familiar to many of us, so, though not entirely accurate - but accurate enough for our purposes here - we're going to substitute watts instead. We can all imagine what the energy output from a 100-watt light bulb looks like so we'll save that for later. Now let's take the arithmetical operator "=" to mean "is equal to" so that we can ultimately turn this vague equation into a clear sentence in everyday English. Next is the letter "m" ("m" and "c" are traditionally used lower case). "m" stands for mass measured in grams. One penny is equal to about three grams. In the equation, "m" represents 1 gram, so multiply that by the next letter "c" which stands for the speed of light measured in centimeters per second. One centimeter is about equal to half an inch, and so, is easy to imagine and makes "c" in the equation memorable for this unit of length. Now comes the numeral "2", meaning "squared" or, "c" times itself, or "c x c".
  O.K., you had to figure this was coming - a point where things were going to get a bit messy and, unfortunately, that's going to be in the value of "c" which is 30 billion centimeters. Neither one of us really wants to know that 30 billion centimeters squared is 900 billion billion centimeters, nor is there really a more palatable way to put it even if we had used miles instead of centimeters. But this obscurity and vastness is where all the excitement comes in! Here is the whole thing in a nutshell...

If you could use the total energy "E" (in watts) contained in one-third of one penny "m" (the mass of one-third of one penny) by detonating the penny using mass-energy conversion in the parking lot at the Cape Cod Mall, "c" (the speed of light) times "2" (times the speed of light again) it would immediately transform the town of Barnstable and its villages into chunks and bits and pieces!

  That's where the watts come back into the picture and that's a lot of watts of raw energy. Can you imagine how many 100W light bulbs it would take to create a light equivalent to that kind of energy? In other words, the output, in watts of the explosion is exactly equal to the mass of one-third of one penny times the speed of light squared. The first, and to date most dramatic proof of the conversion of mass to energy came in two basketball-sized masses weighing eight pounds each, of the highly unstable metals Plutonium-239 and Uranium-236 (both isotopes or by-products of the elements proper) used as catalysts for the atomic bombs that destroyed each of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - and, sadly, their citizens - in Japan in 1945. Though Einstein showed how an atomic nucleus could be harvested for its energy, he was a pacifist who abhorred violence; it was society that felt it necessary to use the equation's more vicious implications against itself.

Our above equation, "E=mc2", for the conversion of mass to energy and vice-versa is only one aspect of the Theory of Relativity and I chose it as a starting point for its dramatic potential. Other aspects of Relativity include the impossibility of travel faster than the speed of light; length contraction; time-dilation (the slowing down of time as speed/velocity increase); gravitational lenses; infinite mass and quite a bit more...

E=mc2"; use it - don't abuse it!

The Drake Equation

The Drake Equation
Apr 2013 by Dale Alan Bryant

 American astronomer, Frank Drake, proposed a simple algebraic equation in the early 1960’s for determining the number of communicating civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy, as represented by the number N. These would be civilizations that are both capable of, and are, communicating via the electromagnetic spectrum, at some radio wavelength or other EMS emission. These parameters could (and should) be applied to any spiral, or barred-spiral galaxy in the universe, comparable in size and age to the Milky Way.

Here is the equation in its entirety:
 N = R*× fp × ne × fl × fi × fc × L

Where:
N = the number of galactic civilizations releasing detectable Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) signals into space.
R* = the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy.
fp = the fraction of those stars that form planets.
ne = the average number of those planets that lie in the systems potential habitable zone.
fl = the fraction of the above planets that actually go on to develop life at some point.
fi = the fraction of the above life-bearing planets that go on to develop intelligent life.
fc = the fraction of planets harboring intelligent civilizations, who are able to develop a technology that releases detectable signs of the civilization's existence, through EMS emissions into space.
L = the length of time for which a given civilization releases detectable EMS signals into space.

 In 1961, when the Drake Equation was introduced, it was thought that very few stars harbored planetary systems and the conservative value of N was placed at 36 million. As of 2013, it is known that more than half of all stars have orbiting planets (exoplanets: planets orbiting stars other than the Sun) with as many as six orbiting one star, and one planet orbiting four stars and more than 2,400 exoplanets are known to date. These planets all lie within the only sector analyzed so far by the Kepler Space Telescope - an area of sky smaller than the size of a postcard held at arm’s length, just east of the constellation Cygnus the swan (also known as the Northern Cross).

 Though this sounds promising, only one signal-artifact to date was found back in 1977; it is known as the “Wow!” signal. It was neither a repeating sequence, nor was it ever deciphered, nor did it ever recur. All that is known of the “Wow!” signal is that it was not of terrestrial (Earth) origin.

Death of a Star

Death of a Star
May 2010 -Dale Alan Bryant

  A few stars that are overdue and just may go supernova at any moment: "Alnilam" or ε (eta) Orionis, the middle star in Orion's belt; "Betelgeuse" or α (alpha) Orionis, the right shoulder of Orion and "Eta Carina" (ε Carinae), 7th brightest star in constellation Carina. When these stars go, they will be seen during daylight. This is because they are all relatively nearby, within our Milky Way galaxy, at distances of about 700 to 800 light-years. A typical extra-galactic supernova is so bright that, even though it is millions of light-years away, it outshines its entire 'host' galaxy of several billion stars.
  Most known supernovae have occurred in other galaxies but have been bright enough to be seen from Earth.
  It is supernovae that provide the universe with the heavier elements, like iron, nickel and most other metals. These metals are not present inside the star, however; they are forged during the star's collapse and subsequent explosion. The term 'supernova' is used to describe a normal star's catastrophic end-of-life event. 'Supernovae' spend most of their lifetimes, which can be several millions of years, as normal, stable stars, but they are considerably more massive than the sun. Like all stars, they start out as balls of hydrogen.
 At birth, a star is a cold sphere of hydrogen. Because of its large mass, its gravitational center begins to collapse under its own weight, causing the star to compress, gravitation overcoming the nuclear forces that work against collapse. At this point of nuclear and gravitational imbalance, the star's temperature rises with the increase in pressure and it reaches a state where, because of these conditions, thermonuclear ignition occurs and the star begins burning brightly, converting hydrogen into helium. The star remains in this stable hydrogen-helium conversion state for many millions of years.
 At last, by conversion, the hydrogen is depleted and only helium remains. At this time the star undergoes a second collapse where the temperature begins to rise once more under the enormous pressure of the helium, to the point where the remaining helium again reaches thermonuclear ignition and - the star's only remaining fuel is ignited. It continues to burn the helium for millions more years, all the while contracting, until, at last, the helium is finally depleted. At this point, the star collapses even further and its atoms become so densely packed that it becomes a solid; the star's atoms cannot support the weight of the continually condensing mass and finally break down to a state where individual neutrons are actually pressed against one another - the star is literally a ball of neutrons, called a "neutron star". In this state, the neutrons are so tightly packed together that a cubic inch of material from the star, containing trillions more neutrons than normal, would weigh several billion tons!
  With each collapse event, a star shrinks in size; as it shrinks, the entire mass of its atoms is inclined to move towards the center. Gravity increases with the ever-compressing atoms to the point where they can no longer support their own weight - a catastrophic event takes place - the star blows itself up. This is the point at which the star becomes a 'supernova'. Within the supernova, temperatures and pressures become so high that brand new elements are forged, from light elements to heavy elements. The heaviest elements are transformed into all of the known metals: zinc, copper, iron, etc. The lighter elements are the silicates and various other particles of 'dust'. These elements are distributed throughout the cosmos and frequently end up in a nebula of gases and dust particles, where they contribute their rich assortment of the heavier elements.
  Back in February of 1989, I had the good fortune of co-discovering an extra-galactic supernova (later designated SN1989b) that occurred in the spiral galaxy M66 in the constellation Leo, using a reflector telescope. The galaxy itself appears through a telescope as a dim, uniform oval of light. On this particular February night, M66 showed just a hint of a pinpoint or knot of light near one of its outer edges, a tell-tale sign of a very distant supernova explosion. Its not any wonder that this supernova was so dim - M66 is 60 million light-years away!

  Eventually, supernova remnants from our own galaxy become the beautiful nebulae that can be seen through telescopes. Many of these nebulae have areas of uneven mass distribution and appear to have small knots throughout. These knots, or, nodules may contain enough gaseous mass to one day condense into proto-stars and enough metals and silicates to condense into proto-planets.

  This is how stars are born and die. As for our star the sun, it will never go supernova; it doesn't contain enough mass. To become a supernova, a star needs to be roughly 3.2 solar masses. Our sun, however, being only one solar mass, will become a red-giant star after it has used up its nuclear fuel (hydrogen and helium). This will take place in about 4.5 billion years... BTW: our sun's proper name? - "Sol" (pronounced "soul"). Hence, our planetary system, we call, the "Sol"-ar system. Technically, there are no other 'Solar' systems because there are no other stars by that name. There are, however, lots of other 'planetary' systems. Their names are derived using the host star's name as a prefix, e.g., the "Vegan" system, the "Alpha Centauri" system, the "Rigellian" system and so on. These systems contain the now well-known 'exoplanets' (planets outside of our 'Solar' system). The Kepler orbiting telescope has, to date, discovered several thousand exoplanets and their host stars. Hundreds of these exoplanets are Earth-like and may harbor alien life.

'Bad' Science

‘Bad’ Science
APR 2014 –Dale Alan Bryant

  How do you tell if the ‘science’ you're reading is ‘bad’ science or ‘good’ science? If the article you're reading has an unfamiliar tone throughout, is ‘newsworthy’ or even “shocking”, or seems to defy common sense and a lot of ‘facts’ are being thrown around without any standard citations being offered (names of authors or scientists - and their supporting institutions), it’s most probably bogus.
  There is one popular science website, Space.com, that, even though the presented science is real, presents it in a cheesy, ‘tabloid’ style, using hype tactics in their headlines and by-lines to grab your attention. Selling science by sensationalizing the common to grab the consumers attention is just plain wrong. Moreover, trying to pass off pseudoscience as the real, evidence-based thing is “wrong-est” of all. In fact it’s worse than wrong; intentionally misleading an already mislead (worse yet, confused and gullible) reading or viewing audience is nothing if not criminal.
 One of the greatest offenders in these respects is the History channel’s counterpart “History 2”, or, H2 for short. At first glance, H2 appears to be a rather imaginative take on a typically solid subject like history. However, after just a few minutes it becomes shamefully obvious that its subject matter is almost entirely speculation or myth aimed at fostering a “conspiracy theorist” mentality in the casual viewer, rather than thoughtful, rational thinking and preferring to push such improbable entities as ‘Bigfoot’, the ‘Loch Ness’ monster, ‘Ancient Alien’ visitors, ‘werewolves’, ‘Bible codes’, unlikely (and evidence-starved) ‘books of secrets’ and other nonsense, under the all too telling series title, “Monster Quest” (Monster Quest promos even include the throaty snarls and a close-up of the eye of some obviously disgruntled but unidentified creature, as a warning not to mess with it.)
 These speculations are tasty bait to a scientifically naive lay public because they cannot be entirely ruled-out – even though not a shred of evidence exists in their support - if they haven’t yet been proven not to exist, conveniently allowing the myths - and their associated profits and ratings - to ceaselessly string along the gullible, one little inaccuracy at a time.
    None of this is to say that it isn’t O.K. to ask, “What if?” - after all, that’s where imagination comes in - but that question has to imply viable alternative explanations which conform to known laws of science. Otherwise, H2 is a ‘fool’s paradise’.
 Eminent science and science-fiction writer, Sir Arthur C. Clarke (who actually conceived the communications satellite for one of his short stories - 30 years before it became a reality and before aeronautical engineers could even accept the idea that such a gadget could be made to trace an orbit around the Earth without immediately falling out of the sky!), commenting on whether he thought the U.S. government had really been involved in a massive U.F.O. cover-up of the purported ‘Area-51’ crash-site incident responded, “Human nature would never allow such a cover-up, especially one of such endurance. If the incident had actually taken place, the whole thing would have completely unraveled within 24 hours.”
 So where can we find reputable sources of science (besides the far-too humble author of this essay)?          
 Every branch of science has its journals which track the general progress of the science. These journals are the “bulletin boards” for scientists to publish peer-reviewed papers announcing a major discovery or significant research. Some examples are: The Astrophysical Journal, The Journal of Cosmology, The Journal of the American Chemical Society as well as more generalized journals like Nature and Science. You won’t find those publications in the popular magazine racks, though they can be accessed on-line. Several, more conveniently accessible publications, can be found in most any store with a good magazine section, like, Barnes and Noble, CVS or even Stop & Shop: the magazines Psychology Today, Sky & Telescope, Discover, Astronomy, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, National Geographic and many others are reputable resources for real science.
 
 So, what can you do to protect yourself against ‘bad’ science? Use common sense. Question everything; don’t take anything at face value – including this. Check me on it. The information is out there for the taking – all you have to do is the footwork. It’s something no one can do for you. And, as is always the case, particularly with TV programming and advertising, “Let the buyer beware...”

Anthropological 'Epiphany'

Anthropological 'Epiphany' (or
Epi-phony?)
® 2010Dale Alan Bryant
 
  I was fortunate enough to have had what I can only call an anthropological "epiphany", early yesterday morning, around 2:00AM; it doesn't take much to amuse me, folks! I have feverishly searched for an answer to two questions in particular, regarding human origins, for just over two years now. My suspicions were validated when I recently found the answers - but I’m keeping it to myself for now...
  On a related note, I am fuming to have recently discovered that the Boston Museum of Science, as part of its Human Origins exhibit, has compromised the truth, apparently to cultivate inaccurate, "politically correct" propaganda regarding the extant subspecies of Homo sapiens in their present incarnation. The Museum seems to be refusing to recognize individuality in humanity, any further than genus (Homo) and species (sapiens). They state that the topic is 'controversial' - but that controversy is political, not taxonomic. In essence, their opinion is that, Man does not break down into subspecies, or, varieties (in human taxonomy, varieties are races). Not only is their propaganda wrong, but it is an insult to intelligence and the senses, as well as to all cultures and races of humanity. The intentional cultivation of mis-information, is, I feel, (because it involves large portions of society) a criminal act.
  It has long been known to Anthropologists and Taxonomists that, no less than three extant subspecies of Homo sapiens exist, according to the order of their descent by natural selection; they are: Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasoid. These subspecies may include their own varieties, which would include the aboriginal Australian descendants of the African, or, Negroid race and the Native American descendants of the Asian, or, Mongoloid race. Each race (variety), has a unique set of obvious, distinct physical and mental characteristics, such as hair type, cranial shape, temperament, and susceptibility to diseases, such as 'sickle-cell' anemia, being restricted to the Negroid gene pool.
  It sickens me that an institution of their caliber would succumb to pressures from "PC" groups, who insist on a homogeneous society in the name of 'equal rights'. The division of man into subspecies, or races, is the very essence of Darwinian evolution and is due mainly to adaptation to geographical environment, or, climate. These climates, as we can see for ourselves, are in constant flux, and the varieties of Homo sapiens have become sub-species by adaptation through natural selection and the inheritance of favorable characteristics. Here are their taxonomic trinomial names:
Homo sapiens afers (African or, Negroid descent); Homo sapiens asiaticus (Mongoloid descent); Homo sapiens sapiens (Caucasoid descent); Homo sapiens tasmaniatus (Negroid descent) and Homo sapiens americanus (Native American or, Mongoloid descent).
  There's an old analogy regarding common sense that can be applied here: "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - it's a duck."
  Who do they think they're fooling? Hopefully, this situation with the Museum has been noted elsewhere, particularly in journals like Nature or Science that deal with topics like human-origins.
  If you demand an explanation for all of this - don't shoot the messenger - take it up with God - not me.

P.S. Maybe I ought to shoot a copy of our newsletter, with this article, over to administration at the Smithsonian while in Washington next month--I understand they're in need of an opportunity for a good-natured poke at northeastern academia... Ha!
2010 -Dale Bryant, Homo sapiens chumpis gullibilis

America's First Man in Space

America's First Man in Space:
By Alan B. Shepard, Jr., aboard the “Freedom 7” Mercury spacecraft and Deke Slayton
2013 by Dale Alan Bryant


  I picked up this little cherry of a book - mint condition, first edition hard back of Mercury astronauts Alan B. Shepard, Jr. and Deke Slayton's book "Moon Shot" at a thrift store on Main St. The penciled-in price was $3.75. I already own a soft cover edition of this book but I couldn't resist thumbing through it anyway...
  Alan Shepard was the first American to enter space during a Mercury sub-orbital flight. Deke Slayton, who had been temporarily grounded because of an inner-ear infection was made chief of operations. Shepard's flight lasted 15 minutes from launch at Cape Canaveral, to the edge of space, to splashdown in the Atlantic in his Mercury 7 space capsule, Freedom 7. Alan was one of the original 'Mercury 7' astronauts, along with John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, whose full-orbital flight in his Friendship 7 spacecraft followed Shepard's. He was able to achieve 3 complete orbits in six hours.
  I was six years old and standing in the twilight on my front doorstep at 56 AMVET's Ave., Falmouth, Cape Cod, when Glenn's star-like, Friendship 7, gleaming by reflected sunlight, passed overhead at dusk that night. I witnessed two of his orbits, approximately 90 minutes apart. How could I have possibly known that just two years later I'd be sitting in the pilot's seat of that very spacecraft...
 
  The Friendship 7 has been on display at the Smithsonian's Institution's National Air & Space Museum, Washington, D. C., since just after Glenn's flight. At the age of eight, while visiting the Smithsonian, (pre-National Air & Space Museum), I was invited by one of the museum staff to board the Friendship 7 and spend some time in the pilot's seat - the only seat in the tiny one-man Mercury spacecraft. Once seated, I distinctly recall a mild claustrophobic sensation--the pale-green steel panels that constituted the ceiling, walls and floor of the cockpit, all being uncomfortably close-by; the hatch--which could only be opened from the outside--just inches from my right shoulder; the main control panel with its small, green circular CRT screen just elbow's reach in front of me; the infinite number of lighted rocker panels, momentary switches and toggles wrapping around both sides of the cockpit enveloping my eight-year-old frame. No one is any longer allowed inside the spacecraft--it is encased in a 1 1/2-inch-thick protective acrylic shell for its preservation.
 
  As for Shepard and Slayton's book, "Moon Shot", imagine my surprise when I opened up the front cover and saw that, on the first leaf, was a bookplate signed by Shepard, indicating that this particular copy was part of Shepard's personal library that was eventually released by his wife, Louise. I had Shepard's signature verified and have seen copies of this book signed in different places among its pages at auction between $950 and $15,000, according to condition on eBay. Happily, my copy is in mint condition but will never appear in an eBay listing--I wouldn't part with this volume at any price.
 
 "Moon Shot" is about the the American Space Program, from the first Mercury and Gemini mission, to the Apollo missions that actually landed on the moon. All three missions were geared toward this end. The book takes you through the daily lives of the astronauts of the original Mercury 7, the drama, the humor, disappointment, the trial and error, Missions that almost didn't get off the ground and on and on. It's their human story, complete with original dialog throughout... The human story of American space exploration.
 
 Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 Mercury spacecraft has been immaculately restored and is, at the time of this writing, on loan to the J.F.K. Library in Boston, since its arrival in Dec., 2012 and will remain at the library until December 15, 2015. It isn't easy getting to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in D. C., for most Northern New Englanders to view these and other icons of the golden years of America's Space Program--like Gus Grissom's Mercury spacecraft, Liberty Bell 7 --which spent 45 years at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Sadly, Grissom perished along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee in the fire that consumed the Apollo 1 command module while it sat atop the launch pad, its pressurized cockpit under 300% pure oxygen, during a routine flight test. They were unable to escape the capsule - it's hatch could not be opened from the inside.
   These were the first few of the original Mercury 7 test pilots and astronauts of America's first committed space program. What they gave in the line of duty, they gave to the men and women and children of a starry-eyed America. John Glenn had piloted the "Friendship 7" in a three-orbit flight in 1962, the first American astronaut to achieve orbit at the ripe old age of 41. He returned to space at age 77, making him the oldest astronaut in history aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
   It's so good to know that it's just a day trip to Boston's J.F.K. Library. Don't let this one slide away from you--log onto the J.F.K. Library's website for further information.