Some things Ive learned today: Half of the missions performed at NASAs Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA are Earth missions. Today, I had the extraordinary privilege of looking on all agog while a team of scientists noodled around with a satellite (to be launched soon) tasked with the mission of taking measure of moisture levels in soil as it orbits Earth. Supplied with such information, farmers can irrigate their fields with precision to save water and probably a lot of other cool stuff I dont know anything about. Holy moly...Apparently, there is already a similar satellite monitoring CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Nobody seems to know this is going on, despite absolutely all of it being publicly available, well-documented and aptly described by brilliant science communicators (Im looking at you, Rachel Zimmerman Brachman). Im regularly stunned by how little human beings seem to understand about life, the universe and everything. But on a day like today I am doubly--No! Triply--stunned by how very, very much we do know and by the generous, egg-headed geniuses who take all the tools humanity has so far acquired and venture into the vast unknown.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 07:10:28 +0000
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