On this date in 1986, Russia launched the Mir space station.
First of all, I'd like to apologize for the long delay in getting back to this blog. It's been a very busy month, and I promise to be more consistent.
Now that the International Space Station is up and running, and Mir is no longer in the news (not to mention the skies), it's easy to forget its importance. Mir was no less than mankind's first long-term step into space, the first time that our voyages beyond our planet became more than just voyages. It was the first place that we as humans truly lived in space.
For just short of ten years, Mir orbited the Earth. That is still the record for longest continuous human habitation in space. It was host to 39 visiting spacecraft, including nine visits by the American space shuttle, and another benchmark of its place in history were these nine times when the old Cold War enemies met in the vacuum of space, not just peacefully, but cooperatively and for mutual benefit. Citizens of twelve nations were at one time or another aboard the station, making it the first international space station, before that name was taken officially.
Mir came down in 2001, the victim not of a failure of engineering, like the U.S. spy satellite on its way to Earth as I write this, but a lack of funding. I for one was sad to see the pictures of its burning end in the sky about the South Pacific. It was like seeing the Spirit of St. Louis destroyed, or Magellan's ship. I will always stand by my idea that Mir was one of the best things humanity ever made, and no matter how many generations of space station come after, no matter how advanced or commonplace they become, this will always be the station that started our life beyond Earth.
Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts
19 February 2008
06 January 2008
Daylight Savings and the Energy Crisis
On this date in 1974, the United States enacted year-round daylight savings time.
The concept of daylight savings time has always been a strange one to me. No matter what number one attaches to a particular time of day, it has no effect on the number of hours of sunlight, but it can have a huge effect on human activities, mostly because the majority of us working folks are on a relatively strict work schedule. Nine to five may be a bit of a cliche, but it still remains the most common work day, at least in the United States. There are a lot of interesting consequences to the difference between it being light and dark outside when that 5-o'clock bell rings.
Studies have shown a reduction in both crime and traffic accidents during daylight savings time. It makes a certain amount of sense when you think about it. If the average person is home and (relatively) secure by the time it gets dark, there is both less driving in the dark and less walking in the dark through what might be suspicious territory.
Daylight savings also has a huge effect on energy use, and that is the effect that brings up today's blog post. Because of our enforced work schedules, people tend to go to sleep at about the same time regardless of the timing of sunlight. So, the energy used on electric lighting in the home tends to be less during daylight savings time because there are fewer hours between returning home from work and turning almost everything off to go to sleep. If gas happens to be in low supply, this little difference can be important.
In 1974, gas was, to say the least, in low supply. The energy crisis was in full stride, after OPEC decided to use the West's oil dependence as a weapon to punish us for our support of Israel in the fourth Arab-Israeli War. Price controls and rationing were already well in place when the New Year came around and the decision was made to extend daylight savings to further reduce energy use. As it turned out, the problems had reached their worst point and were starting to abate. It would be two months later, on March 17, that OPEC dropped the embargo and things started to normalize. Still, for those of us who complain about $4 gas and marvel at $100/barrel oil, it is worth remembering a time when we not only had to wait our turn to get gas, but also actually changed our clocks to save it.
Tomorrow, Galileo and the Four Moons
The concept of daylight savings time has always been a strange one to me. No matter what number one attaches to a particular time of day, it has no effect on the number of hours of sunlight, but it can have a huge effect on human activities, mostly because the majority of us working folks are on a relatively strict work schedule. Nine to five may be a bit of a cliche, but it still remains the most common work day, at least in the United States. There are a lot of interesting consequences to the difference between it being light and dark outside when that 5-o'clock bell rings.
Studies have shown a reduction in both crime and traffic accidents during daylight savings time. It makes a certain amount of sense when you think about it. If the average person is home and (relatively) secure by the time it gets dark, there is both less driving in the dark and less walking in the dark through what might be suspicious territory.
Daylight savings also has a huge effect on energy use, and that is the effect that brings up today's blog post. Because of our enforced work schedules, people tend to go to sleep at about the same time regardless of the timing of sunlight. So, the energy used on electric lighting in the home tends to be less during daylight savings time because there are fewer hours between returning home from work and turning almost everything off to go to sleep. If gas happens to be in low supply, this little difference can be important.
In 1974, gas was, to say the least, in low supply. The energy crisis was in full stride, after OPEC decided to use the West's oil dependence as a weapon to punish us for our support of Israel in the fourth Arab-Israeli War. Price controls and rationing were already well in place when the New Year came around and the decision was made to extend daylight savings to further reduce energy use. As it turned out, the problems had reached their worst point and were starting to abate. It would be two months later, on March 17, that OPEC dropped the embargo and things started to normalize. Still, for those of us who complain about $4 gas and marvel at $100/barrel oil, it is worth remembering a time when we not only had to wait our turn to get gas, but also actually changed our clocks to save it.
Tomorrow, Galileo and the Four Moons
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