South by Southwest: Focusing in from around the universe

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Focusing in from around the universe

Today we start on Mars. Through the lens we see that the uninhabited landscape is stark, but peaceful. We visit by remote control, so it is not as dangerous as it will be when we travel there in person. From EurekAlert! - Space and Planetary Science:

With stunningly powerful vision, the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken a remarkable picture that shows the exploration rover Opportunity poised on the rim of Victoria crater on Mars.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera detailed the entire 800-meter (roughly half-mile) Victoria crater and the rover -- down to its rover tracks and shadows -- in a single high-resolution image taken Wednesday (Oct. 3).

HiRISE Camera on NASA Orbiter Gets Detailed View of Opportunity at Victoria Crater
Space participant views from orbit to earth - via NASA TV and the blogosphere, we safely shared a vicarious trip in nearby space. Focusing the lens closer to earth, I read the latest post on Anousheh Ansari's Space Blog, (10/05/06) "Second Birth." This post details her experience of coming back to earth from the International Space Station. In an earlier post from low earth orbit she reflects on getting along in the physically dangerous world of space travel; from "Close Quarters," I quote:

. . . But they are really intelligent, warm-hearted, peaceful individuals. Everyone I met in Star City and up here can be called superhumans… I honestly think we should get astronauts to run for presidency… they are great leaders with a unique perspective on the World!
So even though these guys and gals are in close quarters for six months or sometimes longer, they get along pretty well and they become lifelong friends. Up here their lives depends on how well they work together and how well they communicate… and when you have to establish such a strong bond, you cannot just cut it when you return to Earth.
It’s sort of like on Earth, if you think about it… We are all connected to each other by living on the only habitable planet in the solar system… we have no place else to go, at least not for a while… so if we don’t get along and blow up everything and create a mess of our home, well guess what? WE have to live with it…
Most veteran cosmonauts speak English and most veteran astronauts speak Russian. The funny thing I have observed sometimes is when a cosmonaut asks a question in English, his astronaut counterpart will answer in Russian. This is what I call mutual respect! If only we had more people practice it on Earth, we would have a much more peaceful place to live.

Intergovernmental Cooperation - makes everything we do in space possible. But when it comes to U.S. cooperation with other countries we have suffered since the current Bush administration took office. Reading from foreign newspapers gives a much better focused view of earth's inordinately conflicted reality, even among allies. But EU-US relations are a bit better since the administration began working to repair the earlier damage. The Financial Times published an article about the new passenger info sharing agreement between the EU and the US. Highlighting the value of how governments getting along makes things better for everyone, the European Commission also posted on the deal. The FT article states,

FBI and other American anti-terror agencies will have easier access to sensitive personal information on passengers flying from the European Union to the US, under a deal agreed on Friday.
Brussels and Washington struck the fresh concord after weeks of negotiations to replace a controversial pact from 2004 through which the US receives up to 34 pieces of data on air travellers.
That deal was invalidated by the EU’s highest court on a legal technicality and expired last Saturday, prompting fears of transatlantic travel chaos.

Iraq's intra-governmental conflict - between sectarian factions at war is very clearly what we see, when we focus further in on regional news from the Middle East. We see a stark contrast between the picture from Mars and the pictures from Baghdad. An Aljazeera story reports 4,000 Iraqi police killed in two years, for example. To quote,

Around 4,000 Iraqi police have been killed during the past two years, the US army commander in charge of their training has said. More than 8,000 police officers had also been wounded in attacks in the same period, Major General Joseph Peterson said on Friday.

Intergovernmental conflict between Iraq and the USA - The BBC News carried a story about Secretary of State Rice's recent surprise visit to Iraq to confront the government of Iraq about their lack of peace and security. The story goes on,

En route to Baghdad, Ms Rice told reporters: "Our role is to support all the parties and indeed to press all the parties to work toward that resolution quickly because obviously the security situation is not one that can be tolerated and it is not one that is being helped by political inaction.
"They don't have time for endless debate of these issues. They have really got to move forward."
The BBC's Jonathan Beale, travelling with Ms Rice, says the military transport plane was delayed by 35 minutes by "indirect fire" in the airport area.
Ms Rice, wearing body armour, was then flown in a convoy of heavily armed US helicopters to the secure Baghdad Green Zone

The colors match - As we focus in closer and closer we are left with the picture of Condoleezza Rice getting off her delayed-landing airplane in a body armour matching her beige ensemble. Coincidentally, the colors match the Mars landscape. But there are many degrees of separation between the peace out there and the war here.
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