Computer Science Geek
International Space Station streaking to Cassiopeia
Achird, the nearest star in the constellation Cassiopeia, is 19.4 light years away. The International Space Station is a low earth orbit about 200 miles above the surface of the planet. The bungalow is just a couple dozen yards from the camera. People inhabit that house. People have been continuously stationed aboard the ISS since November of 2000. Nobody knows if Achird supports a life-bearing planet.
They are all made of star stuff. The people of that house, the space station streaking across the night sky, that distant star…all made of the same fundamental stuff. They’re all bound by the same laws of physics. The same forces that sustain Achird in Cassiopeia keep the space station in orbit and keep the feet of the inhabitants of that house firmly planted on the surface of the earth.
Looking up into the vastness of the night sky, we feel small and insignificant. The fact that we are able to fling a 230 ton tin can into space and keep it there, that we can inhabit it continuously with people from 14 different nations, that we have that sort of courage and imagination, makes us marginally less small, less insignificant.
This photograph is all about home. That house, this planet, that space station, that star in that constellation…it’s all our home. We belong there as much as we belong here.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
