for example, Florida's "Space Coast"

In an article about the upcoming 40th anniversary of the moon landing (July 20, 2009), the NYTimes writes about about the way various companies are using this milestone anniversary for marketing and sales purposes.

The most interesting line of the article for me, though, is this:
"The recent economic hard times may be playing a part in amplifying the hoopla. After the first moon landing, it became commonplace for people to ask, “If they can land a man on the moon, why can’t they figure out how to fix (insert type of problem)?”"

It prompts a more exciting question: what are the ongoing effects of the moon landing (and the space race, and space science and exploration in and of itself, past, present and future) on the public imagination?

not a new question, obviously. but one that never stops fascinating me.

one of my favorite "effects" is Florida's Space Coast (as Wikipedia puts it, "The Space Coast is a region in the U.S. state of Florida around Kennedy Space Center, where the U.S. Air Force and NASA frequently launch rockets and Space Shuttles into space. Cities in the area include Titusville, Cocoa, Rockledge, Merritt Island (unincorporated), Cocoa Beach, Melbourne and Palm Bay; and most of the area lies within Brevard County.").

one great book worth mentioning (which includes some sections about this region of Florida): Marina Benjamin's "Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond".

I'm working my way through what I hear is a true classic, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn (better cover here).

I'm still fairly early on, but it's helping fuel my investigations of the relationships between imagination, science and art (from an artist's perspective). Clearly, this book suggests a very different picture of science imagination than thinking about the space race and the Space Coast.

of course, I won't try to come to any conclusions in the post. more than anything, food for thought.

Thu, Jun 11, 2009  Permanent link

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