Astronauts, cosmonauts land in Cache Valley
Going places most only dream about, seeing the Earth from the view of the heavens and exploring a foreign territory to better understand life are several reasons that brought astronauts, cosmonauts and space enthusiasts to Cache Valley Thursday afternoon.
As apart of the week-long Association of Space Explorers XIX Planetary Congress, members from Russia, the United States and other European space programs met at Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Lab to discuss the future of space programs and exploration.
“Exploring the solar system is something that will mark this century,” Piero Messina, a member of the European Space Agency, said.
ASE is an organization with more than 250 astronauts and cosmonauts from 29 countries. The congress met in Salt Lake City Monday to kick off the annual event. With the United States hosting the conference for the second time, many of the participants had never stepped foot in the Beehive state prior to this event.
“I’m impressed,” said Messina, who was born in Italy but is currently working in France. “The landscape is beautiful.”
After visiting every school district in the state and presenting in Salt Lake City, ASE members met in Cache Valley to see where space exploration will go.
“Exploring is human nature,” Messina said, adding that without out this innate drive, the human race would have perished a long time ago. “That’s why we keep going.”
This year’s theme is “Our Destiny in Space: Worlds Without Borders” and the conference included meeting with members of Utah’s space industry to help promote Gov. John Huntsman’s “Economic Cluster” program, which highlights the state’s involvement and contributions to space exploration.
A major reason for the congress being held in Utah was because of Senator Jake Garn’s involvement, ASE-USA Executive Director Andy Turnage said. In conjunction with Garn’s 20th anniversary of his flight and 20th anniversary of the creation of ASE, Turnage said this congress has received overwhelmingly positive responses from ASE members and the public.
Thursday’s event was a technical session for ASE members to discuss what was next for the industry. Tom Jones, an asteroid scientist by training prior to flying with NASA, spoke about possibilities of bridging the gap between the moon and Mars by exploring asteroids.
The United States is planning on going back to the moon in 2018, Jones said, but that is a long time not to be exploring something. Astronauts can get to the moon in two to three days, but Mars is a more difficult proposition. The Red Planet is 150 times greater than the distance from the Earth to the moon, Jones said.
“It’s quite a big leap to take,” he said.
Yet near-Earth objects, such as asteroids, can provide insight into materials that make up the universe. The number of NEOs is steadily increasing, Jones said, with about 3,613 orbits known. Of those, 801 are considered large.
“If they ran into Earth, they would cause a civilization-ending catastrophe,” he said, adding, “none are known to be on collision course now.”
Not only were ASE members excited about the conference, but several USU students also had an opportunity to play a vital role in the congress’ success. Vance Hansen, a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering, utilized his Russian skills to translate for his industry’s heroes to elementary students and the general public.
“The fun part is we get to meet them,” Hansen, who aspires to be an astronaut, said. “It’s just neat to see all the Russian heroes.”
Meeting the first men who walked in space continued to inspire Hansen to follow his career in space exploration. What further impressed Hansen was the teamwork between various nations in a common dream.
“It’s amazing to see the Russians and Americans coming together to work as one,” he said.
-kcashton@cc.usu.edu