Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Lost in Space!

Seeing a link to this magnificent photograph reminded me of my childhood.

Many of my generation spent many hours following the exploits of NASA's men in space. Our teenage years were spent devising ways of following the space race whilst allegedly studying in school.

As a radio enthusiast, I followed our progress in space with the aid of what was at the time the worlds smallest radio, manufactured and sold by Clive Sinclair, (of ZX81 and Spectrum fame); which could be used during lessons to listen in to the radio transmissions between earth and the Apollo spacecraft as they travelled towards, around and eventually to the moon. To make absolutely certain that teachers didn't find my radio I secreted it inside a hollowed out text book. Its nice to read that such books still have some use for the owners of iPods!

It's all quite different now, the wonder of space is just a mouse click away, I have over the last couple of days spent hours watching the live transmissions from the ISS courtesy of NASA TV. No need to hide my radio earpiece, the streaming video has been permanently on view on my laptop.

I can't but help wonder:-
  • Do today's digital youth spend hours watching astronauts as I did?
  • Does anyone?
Or were my generation the real digital natives?

Thinking about space has led me to explore cyberspace. Enjoy the view.

1 comment:

  1. An old post I know and I did also come to it via "Gradatim Ferociter". However now in my 30's I still do dream of space and follow what is happening in the great expanse with interest (admittedly via the internet)

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