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INTRODUCTION Space exploration is the investigation of physical conditions in space and on stars, planets, and their moons through the use of artificial satellites (spacecraft that orbit the earth), space probes (spacecraft that pass through the solar system and that may or may not orbit another celestial body), and spacecraft with human crews. ( http://education. yahoo. com/reference/encyclopedia/entry? id=44593)
As a senior officer with Malaysia National Space Agency (MNSA), I was invited by the English Club of Sekolah Menengah Kota Bharu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan to be one of three speakers to speak on the topic, ‘Should Malaysia join in the race for space exploration? ‘. Guest speakers were given approximately 30 minutes each to deliver their speech. PROFILING OCCASSION The objectives of the speech are: i)To convey the information about space exploration to the students – what space exploration is all about, what good can it bring, what are the disadvantages and what can they do to be part of it. i)With this talk, it is hoped that students will feel, think and respond positively towards space exploration and why it is necessary to the human race to spread their horizon into the outer space. iii)To inculcate and to nurture the interest of the future generations to think what is beyond the universe, which might inspire them to learn more about science and pursuing a career in science iv)To create awareness among students, how Malaysia fare in space technologies, what are the government initiatives to see it grow and how realistic it is that a Malaysian, stand a chance to be an astronaut. PROFILING AUDIENCE
Our target audience is The English Club of a secondary school, Sekolah Menengah Kota Bharu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. There will be approximately 100 students, 70%t of them are Malay, with 20% Chinese and 10% Indian. 70 percent of them are girls. Averagely, their level of English proficiency is good, with more than half of them scored A in written English, but 80% of them scored B in the oral, in their last Mid Term Examination. 60 percent of their parents are working class people. 30% are self employed or self made businessman and the rest are professionals, such as lawyers, CEOs, doctors and architects.
With these backgrounds, we assume that the use of English language should not be too complicated nor it too poor. It should be straightforward without compromising the professionalism. Their exposure to the subject is very good as they all have access to television, newspapers and internet. 70 percent of them are from Science Stream, 20 from Commerce and the rest are Art Stream. PROFILING LOCATION Sekolah Menengah Kota Bharu is one of the renown school in Kelantan. It is situated on the edge of Kota Bharu, the capital of Kelantan and it is only about a few kilometres from my hotel where I stay for these few days.
I do not foresee any worries about traffic congestion or any problem to reach there on time. The speech presentation will take place in the school hall, on a stage equipped with good Audio Visual equipments and LCD projector. The small hall has a capacity of 800 persons and air-conditioned, which is comfortable for a lengthy talk. We will be joined by 3 English and 2 Science teachers, as the observers. In view of the fact that their expectations are very high, the formal attire is very highly appropriate.
There will also be a photographer ??? a student from the school media club, which from our understanding, this event will feature in their year book. SPEECH TEXT My dear students, What is space? According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, space is defined as ‘the empty area outside the Earth’s atmosphere, where the planet and the stars are’. In space, no one can hear you scream. Why? This is because there is no air in space ??? it is a vacuum. Sound waves cannot travel through a vacuum. Outer space begins about 200 km above the Earth, where the shell of air around our planet disappears.
With no air to scatter sunlight and produce a blue sky, space appears as a black blanket dotted with stars. Unfortunately my dear, I’m here today not to talk about spacecraft, aliens or Milky Way galaxies as you always see in the movies. My name is Dr. Adam Haris bin Abdul Halim of Malaysia National Space Agency (MNSA). I’m here today to talk about ‘should Malaysia join in the race for space exploration? ‘ First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the Club President, Secretary, Committee Members, teachers and the entire club members for giving me this opportunity to share about our today’s topic.
Malaysia National Space Agency was established in 2002. Our responsibility is providing leadership in Malaysia Space Programme, space education and research as well as assisting the Malaysia Government in formulating policies on space. The first and current Director General of the agency is Prof. Datuk Dr. Mazlan Binti Othman with Dr. Mustafa Bin Subari as the Deputy. Malaysian space exploration which we are proud of, is merely an event. The real issue concerns the technology resulting from space exploration. I believe you are all aware of our first astronaut that made it to the outer space.
It created prime time news when he blasted off into space on board a Russian made spacecraft, right students? The entire nation tuned in to watch the event broadcast live on television if you can remember. My dear students, Let me give some interesting facts. I believe you all know who was the first man in space. But do you know what is the first animal being in space? Well in history, Laika (meaning ‘one who barks’ in Russian) was the first dog (and the first animal) in space. She travelled into space on Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. And what is Monkeynauts? Yup! You guess it right.
Monkeynauts referred to monkeys which were sent into space. The first monkey in sub-orbital space was a squirrel monkey named Gordo. Gordo was launched into space on December 13, 1958, in the nose cone of an Army rocket Jupiter Am-13. Gordo fared well during the flight. Unfortunately she drowned in the Atlantic Ocean due to the nose cone failed to deploy the flotation device, causing the craft to sink. Pity Gordo! Now students, enough with the facts. Let’s talk about space exploration. It appears that we are more interested in celebrating the space exploration, the event. We know nothing about space technology.
We cannot even touch one button on the spacecraft because it is not made in Malaysia. Do you agree? The celebration of this national event dominated the Malaysian media, devoting dozens of pages to the launch, portraying photographs showing a smiling Dr. Muszaphar inside the craft with a Malaysian flag proudly emblazoned on the sleeve of his spacesuit. The crowd of more than 2,000 people, many in Malay national costume, cheered wildly at lift-off. The event was aired on about a dozen public screenings held in Kuala Lumpur to coincide with numerous parties and activities which were organized across the country.
At the capital’s Merdeka Square, hundreds of space fans yelled out the national slogan ” Malaysia Boleh” as the spacecraft headed into orbit. The outpouring of national pride reached cyberspace, with Malaysia’s lively blogsphere devoting wide coverage to the event. It appeared that we were attempting to gamer as much publicity for our people because we seemed more interested in the event. Now there are suggestions that we intend to launch a second astronaut into space at a cost of US$30 million (RM102 million) according to The Star ??? Tuesday September 25, 2007). Will this be celebrated as yet a second (2nd) national event?
My beloved students, For decades, only the United States and the former Soviet Union were able to foot the necessary financial and human resources to confront the “final frontier”. Other countries took longer to actualize similar ambitions. Today, several countries are eager to join the club, but so far only China is able to independently launch manned missions to the frontiers of space. But that is China, they might have sufficient fund and resources. What about Malaysia? What are the pros and cons, the space exploration can offer us? My dear students, Let us talk about the pros first Firstly – Survival of mankind At the moment, the human species is intimately dependent on the fragile ecosystem of the planet Earth. This ecosystem is vulnerable to dramatic change, which would be disastrous and probably deadly to human life on Earth. Three example mechanisms for such change are: Nuclear War, Asteroid or Comet impact, and gradual atmospheric change. We can hope to hold off the first cause for as long as we can, but we are helpless against the second two. If we cannot save ourselves against possible disastrous change, we must break free of the fragile ecosystem.
We must establish a human presence in space to avoid total extinction in the event of harm to our planet. If the ecosystem changes, the only species that survive are those already adapted to live in the new conditions. Asteroid impacts are even harder to deal with. It is true that an asteroid the size of West Malaysia, like that in the film “Armageddon,” would not go undetected. The biggest known asteroid, Ceres, is less than 1000 km in diameter. Wow! That’s huge. West Malaysia is about 1400 km across, so if there were a Malaysia – sized asteroid coming anywhere near the Earth, we would know about it!
The bad news is that an asteroid the size of Malaysia would be very hard to deflect – rather than one bomb, an asteroid 1000 km across would require about a hundred billion megatons to deflect it. Anyone want to carry a hundred billion nukes into orbit? For example, imagine an asteroid about 200m across, traveling at about 22 km / sec when it hits. If it hit in the ocean, this asteroid would create a tidal wave 5m high. By the time it reached a land mass, with shallower water around it, the wave would be about 200 metres high, travelling at 450 miles per hour, smashing into coastal areas with devastating force.
With the best detection equipment available today, the asteroid would not be detected until about eight seconds before impact. Eight seconds! What miracle can you hope for, in 8 seconds my dear friends! Now it is theoretically possible that with advances in technology and a serious detection programme, such meteors might be detected far enough away to deflect before impacting the Earth. Secondly , one benefit space travel brings mankind, which is very much down – to – Earth, is that it furthers education. Once Apollo went up, for example, the number of young people pursuing a career in science increased.
Space exploration inspires people to learn about science, and generates demand for better facilities. The main point behind selling space exploration from an educational point of view is that it really reaches kids. A really genuine space programme is something cool that kids really get into. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that it inspires them, it inspires all of you, am I right? Some of you then go into science for a career to get closer to space exploration. A select few achieve this goal. Many – in fact most – don’t and up in science at all, but go on to some other career.
But the important point is that they have been inspired to apply themselves to something. If you’re ever in doubt of the power of space exploration to move children, I suggest you take some out on a clear night to look at the stars. Throughout the last century, children were taught only base principles in a very abstract way. Kids, our future generations, were treated as empty vessels to be filled up with facts by their teachers. Don’t get mad at me teachers, just metaphorically speaking. This method of teaching totally ignores educational theory dating back two thousand years to the time of the Greeks.
I think it has been established that, while children were learning the required material, the “Empty Vessel” educational system was failing the children in terms of the usefulness of the education, but more importantly in that most children were utterly uninspired. Children are very different from each other, and it is always possible to find a counterexample to any rule about them. But many children need a point to their learning, a goal to chase. Space exploration provides them with such a goal. Do you agree with me my dear friends?
Thirdly, space exploration has resulted in development of application satellites that play a vital role in modern society. These satellites provide global communication networks. They provide accurate weather/crop forecasting that every year saves countless lives and allows for farmers throughout the world to better provide food for their peoples. These satellites are critical for better understanding global environmental change issues, such as ozone depletion and climate changes, that can threaten the very biosphere in which we live. As we explore and study planets, we learn more about this one.
Comparative planetology, the study of Earth in comparison to other planets, has been instrumental in identifying global environmental problems. NASA which stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA, their scientists, trying to understand why the surface temperature of Venus is warm enough to melt lead have proven the validity of greenhouse warming and its potential devastating effects. Likewise, planetary scientists trying to understand why on Mars materials instantly oxidize due to ultraviolet light penetration from the sun identified what was causing ozone depletion back here on Earth. Complicated huh?
In simple words, what made the global warming, I believe you all got that, right? The exploration of Mars will revive the space program and will bring with it multiple benefits. Exploring Mars will bring a storehouse full of information to the possible origins of life in the cosmos, to the light it casts on the environment of Earth, to the international co-operation that it will give rise to between nations, to the scientific understandings of how humans are able to function and adapt in micro gravity environments, and to potentially extending human civilization to Mars by building closed ecological biospheres.
However, my dear students, technology and advances always come with costs. There are also some disadvantages, or the cons. Let us to through them one by one. First, we’re always being told about the many ways the space program is said to benefit humanity. But at what cost? From time to time, rockets fail on launch – witness the hundreds of millions of US dollars wasted whenever a rocket blows up on launch, or the great human cost of the Challenger disaster. Let ask ourselves: are there more direct ways to benefit society with this money? There are so many needs in society that could be regarded as basic human needs that are not being met.
Can government justify spending vast amounts of money on space exploration? Of course my dear students, space exploration is expensive. That’s because it’s very, very hard. It requires very complex and reliable technology and a big support infrastructure to be at all successful. It is true that the money could be spent directly on helping to fix the problems of the human species. For example, the price tag for a manned mission to Mars weighs in at RM50 billion.. (what? ) Think what could be done with that money if spent on the education system, for example.
Spending money on space exploration must be justified when there are still problems on Earth. But whether space exploration is a waste of money, is really open to debate. Second. Look at Apollo. Billions of US dollars spent, many lives lost in tests and development, and only one scientist actually got to the moon, at the expense of the taxpayer. What about the infrastructure and experience? I’ll leave it to your imaginations, my dear students. Last but not least, don’t you think the whole endeavour of space exploration is beyond our capability. Let’s face it, space exploration is very hard.
We do realize the space scientists and technicians are doing their best to overcome the difficulties associated with space travel, with some spectacular success. But if our car had a twenty- percent chance of blowing up per trip, like a space rocket or the space shuttle does, We’d cycle to work every day, wouldn’t we? I think this is evidence that the whole endeavour of space travel is too hard for us right now. Let’s concentrate on problems we can solve. The stars are out of reach. the cumulative failure rate of 20 per cent for all launches since the beginning of the Space Age is fairly high. Malaysia is not ready for this, as yet!
SUMMARY To summarise my speech today, my fellow students, there are some pros and cons to the space exploration. Whether Malaysia is ready or not, very much depends on our readiness in term of our infrastructure and the bigger issue – funds! For your information, Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor was selected on September 4, 2006 to be the first Malaysian in space. The cost of sending a single Malaysian into space has been estimated at RM 95 million (approximately USD 26 million). The entire Malaysian space Program has been criticized as severe waste of money for developing nation that could ill afford such indulgences.
However, to what do we compare the asking price of the Universe? Don’t forget the successes of the space programme. Voyager 2 went on to encounter the planets Uranus and Neptune, with an accuracy in navigation similar to throwing a pin through the eye of a needle 50 miles away. The Voyager probes returned the equivalent of 100,000 encyclopaedia volumes of new information and visions of the solar system, operating for some six times their projected design lifetimes. The Voyagers were spectacular successes. CONCLUSION To all my lovely students, again, what has been Malaysia’s contribution towards the space project besides funding it?
Does Malaysia truly benefit significantly other than having a colourful page in our record books. Is it of significant value for being in the list of being one of the few countries to able to send its qualified citizen into space? By merely sending off an individual into space does not make Malaysia advanced in terms of space technology. What we learn, contribute and achieve later on is of significant value for future advancement. This is perhaps what Malaysia should focus on. However, I am not in the position of answering those questions.
I’ll leave it to you, our future generations, to give a serious thought about it. With that my dear students, I’d like to wrap up my speech, and hope you enjoy the half hour of my talk and I wish all the best with your study and I’d like to open any questions to the floor so that I can answer some of your burning questions. Any questions please, I’ll be more than happy to answer them. (Questions and Answers Sessions takes place around 5 minutes. ) Thank you. REFERENCES 1)Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn, Bhd. (http://www. atsb–malaysia. com. my/main. html). ATSB Retrieval date: 24 May 2008 )Interstellar Ramadan (http://www. nytimes. com/2007/12/09/magazine/09interstellar. html? _r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin) Retrieval date: 24 May 2008 3)Official Angkasawan website (http://www. angkasawan. gov. my) Retrieval date: 24 May 2008 4)http://www. spaceref. com/news/viewnews. html? id=1119 Retrieval date: 24 May 2008 5)INSTITUT KEFAHAMAN ISLAM MALAYSIA (IKIM) ??? COPYRIGHT 1992 – 2008 http://www. ikim. gov. my Retrieval date: 2 June 2008 6)Pros and Cons of Space Traver ??? By Fahd Shariff http://www. geocities. com/fahdshariff/essays/space. html? 200826 Rerieval date: 15 June 2008