A global
salute to humankind’s future
Zane Crawford
The hum of
machinery droned on all around him, incessantly.
“Are
you bored?” a voice squawked through the headset.
“I could
bear it a little better if there were some music,” the young man
joked.
Soon the
omnipresent hum became a deafening roar, the young man was crushed back
into his seat, and a blinding light streaked into the sky above the steppes
of central Asia. After a few minutes the quiet abruptly returned, and
the force of his acceleration was replaced with a euphoric weightlessness.
The young man looked out his one tiny window. The luminous bluish arc
of Earth’s limb stretched across his field of view.
“I see
Earth . . . it’s so beautiful!”
One hundred
eight minutes later, the young man was once again above the plains of
the Soviet Union, and soon to be immortalized as the first human to venture
into the endless star-filled sea of space.
His name
was Yuri Gagarin. The date was April 12, 1961—40 years ago next Thursday.
Gagarin,
who was also a fighter pilot, was tragically killed when his MiG-15 trainer
crashed seven years later, but his name may well be recognized after the
political leaders of the 20th century have faded from memory. Millennia
from now, when our descendants inhabit many worlds, many islands in the
vast black void, they will look back at Gagarin and know he was the first.
Through skill, or luck, or chance of fate, he was the first of us to tread
beyond our pale blue home.
April 12
has long been celebrated in Russia as a national holiday, Cosmonautics
Day. This year, however, through the efforts of young space enthusiasts
around the world, the celebration is spreading. The occasion will be marked
on all seven continents, in more than 40 locations, some as remote as
Burundi and Uzbekistan, and some as urban as Tokyo, London, and Los Angeles.
The name of this celebration is Yuri’s Night.
The festivities
will take different forms, but the underlying themes are all the same.
More than just a celebration of Gagarin, Yuri’s Night is a statement
of optimism about humanity’s future in the universe. It is an attempt
to bring space—space as a real place in which humanity’s collective
future lies—to the consciousness of a younger generation, the generation
that could contain the first people to walk on Mars, the first space tourists
and successful space entrepreneurs.
Members of
the Caltech community have been instrumental in organizing this worldwide
event. Biology graduate student Loretta Hidalgo is one of its two cofounders,
and Cynthia Collins, also a biology graduate student, is managing press
relations. In addition, undergraduates Nathan Brown and Chris Hirata,
and Zane Crawford ’98, a staff member in geological and planetary
sciences, are all working on technical aspects of the event.
The entire
Caltech community is invited to join the flagship Los Angeles celebration,
either in person or in spirit, on Thursday, April 12. The party, featuring
space-themed dance music, takes place from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Hollywood
Palace, 1735 Vine Street, Los Angeles (corner of Vine and Hollywood Boulevard).
Tickets are
$15 before 10 p.m. on the 12th and $20 thereafter. Advance tickets are
available online at http://la.yurisnight.net/nl/ticketsla.htm,
or by phone from StickyTickets at (800) 464-2275. Thanks to generous funding
by the GSC, Caltech graduate students will receive free admission; tickets
should be reserved at http://la.yurisnight.net/nl/cit_grad.htm.
The event is 18 and over—please be sure to bring an ID.
Yuri’s
Night is a nonprofit event, with all proceeds to benefit local and global
youth outreach and education programs. For more information, see the global
and Los Angeles Yuri’s Night Web sites at http://www.yurisnight.net
and http://la.yurisnight.net,
or e-mail zane@yurisnight.net.
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