New Mexico Museum of Space History

Jim is a real history buff of America’s space program, and I find it as interesting as anybody. Right in Alamogordo there is a the New Mexico Museum of Space History. I can get tired of museums pretty quickly, but it’s been a while since we’ve visited one, and what can be more fascinating than space history?

This was a *great* museum. And it was a gorgeous day too. See White Sands in the distance?

You start on the fourth floor and just keep winding your way around and down, around and down. I was most interested in the Satellite section. The Sputnik satellite, launched by Russia in 1957, started the space race. All of a sudden the science curriculum in American schools took off! I think we need another Sputnik :-) Satellites seem like such High Tech, Mysterious, Magical things – after all they *are* rocket science! And yet they are an important part of our everyday lives. Many people get their TV from satellites, we get our radio from satellites. It’s communication with satellites that powers our GPS devices that tell us where we are and how to get where we’re going. We can even get our Internet from a Satellite.

What are these things? How do they get up there? And, how do they stay up there?

The idea that a piece of man-made equipment could be placed in orbit around the earth sparked many ideas for applications. Most satellites are individual, custom-designed items. They started with only military purposes – weapons, or spy equipment. But, the commercial applications of communications and navigation have become very popular. The objects themselves can be as small as sputnik – 23 inches – or as large as the Space Station.

They have to be taken into orbit with a rocket. Some have been taken by the Space Shuttle.

An important concept is that of GeoStationary orbit. Meaning that the satellite is at a calculated distance from the earth, traveling at a calculated speed so that it stays at the exact same spot relative to the earth’s surface. This is very important for communications satellites. If the satellite was moving, you would only be able to communicate with it for a brief window of time. GeoStationary orbit was first envisioned by Arthur C Clarke, one of Jim’s heroes. If this fascinates you like it does us, here is a video about Satellites.

We also learned about the X-Prize. Did you know that Charles Lindbergh made his historic flight in order to win the $25,000 Orteig prize? I didn’t. And now, to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, Burt Rhutan was motivated to build the first private spaceship ‘SpaceShipOne’.

Meanwhile, back at the park, we met some Geeks on Tour members/readers who happened to be staying in the same park. And, they follow our belief that “Every RVer Needs a Blog!” So, you can read about the Trinity Nuclear Test site that’s near here by reading Doug and Linda’s blog. And, here’s their post about the geeks :-) Thanks Linda and Doug! Nice meeting you too!

The other folks we met up with are Jim and Nancy. They told us about seeing a man walking his camel nearby. Check it out.