Virus Tales: View from Above

A crystal clear sunny day , and the view from our flight south from San Francisco was a lesson in geography . We followed the edge of California’s Central Valley where man’s impact was so evident . The valley is totally farmed , and ALL the fields were rectangular running in a NW-SE direction . There were virtually no natural features . Here was agriculture and its’ irrigation at its most efficient ; no wonder they can underprice virtually anyone else in the world . The main water source was from a canal which runs 444 miles down the valley , and clearly visible from the air . Not visible were another 1600 miles of other pipes and Aqueducts taking water from the Sierra Nevada to Californian cities; and the ground water abstraction that is busily draining the main aquifers. That and climate change is making the whole enterprise unviable in the medium term . This is serious , the valley provides 25% of USA agricultural produce .

Skirting the mountains , we headed South east , crossing the deserts of Arizona , New Mexico thence into Texas . The principal change from arid nothingness was small plots of cleared scrub , some kilometre apart; stretching as far as this eye could see from 38,000 feet. There appeared no buildings on these ; no clue as to their purpose . Subsequent investigation using Google Earth revealed that they were all oil derricks ; a principal source of USA’s energy security .

Now to get a truly magnificent view of earth , something more serious than a commercial aeroplane is required . On the ground in front of us was just the thing ; a Saturn 5 rocket. It was actually three rockets on top of each other , designed to boost the lunar module out of earth’s orbit . There was also a small rocket thing on top of the capsule which contained the astronauts, which was a sort of ejector seat to clear them in case of catastrophic launch failure . The whole rocket stood 360 feet tall , but the one in front was on its side in a giant barn to protect it from the elements . Each launch cost over $1 billion in todays money , so having achieved a lunar landing , and some more ; the final launches in the series were cancelled, leaving these bits which were now housed in the Space Centre Museum in Houston Texas .

“ This is one small step….” ; Neil Armstrong’s words echoed around the actual lunar command centre . We were 50 years too late for the spoken words , which were now replayed to us tourists as we watched those final steps played out as it actually happened , the control screens full of the technical information . The Space centre is a huge tourist location , we had broken our journey on route to Quito , just to visit it . Now it’s prime purpose seems to be to convince the American tax payer to fund a trip to Mars , via a Moon based launched centre . Given that Elon Musk also wants to go there , he has ( or perhaps, after Twitter ,had ) the money, and affordable technology ; perhaps it will happen . Just to prove the point , one of his reusable rockets , which had returned to earth intact , was parked out front . Not sure how all this is going to save all , but those few on Mars , from the effects of Global warming.