spaceships and sand dunes

yesterday i had a relatively stationary day, staying in and around alamogordo. first off i went to the new mexico museum of space history, which is a little way up a mountain, above town. (most new mexico towns are tucked into mountainsides, it seems). i started with a 40 minute imax video about the hubble telescope, what it sees, and how they maintained it--bonus was that it was narrated by leonardo dicaprio. of course, the coolest parts were seeing the astronauts trying to eat a burrito in space, but pretty amazing to see the images the telescope has produced, billions of light years away. outside the museum was a spaceship park, which while not as impressive as that at wsmr, was cool because they were space-related, after all. that's a picture up top, with the town of alamogordo in the background.

then i proceeded into the museum itself, four stories of space history in new mexico. now, i already covered some of this in the previous post about white sands missile range. basically, it seems that while places like houston and cape canaveral get a lot of the flashy press releases concerning space shuttles, pretty much all the technology which went into the space shuttles, things in space generally, and missile were developed and/or tested in new mexico. this includes project manhigh, which sent people into the atmosphere disney-style: attached to balloons. the project was in operation from 1957-58, and sent up three flights. it helped lay the groundwork for the manned spaceship program.

the museum also doubles as the international space flight hall of fame, and includes such distinguished persons, in addition to various international astronauts, as isaac newton and galileo, who 'expanded mankind's view of the universe.' new mexico is also pushing the idea of commercial space travel very hard--the first ever commercial flights took off not far from white sands, and they are trying to create a space park to cater to such ventures, including an annual competition. the museum had a great collection of models, such as the model satellite above, as well as nick knacks from space, space suits, food, etc. it was interesting and worth the money, though it could use a facelift.






after finishing in the museum i headed back to the hotel for a siesta--it's hard to spend all day doing things when it's 90 degrees at 9 in the morning. about 4 i headed 20 miles to the south, where white sands national monument is located. white sands is an active dune field, with the dunes moving as much as 30 feet west to east each year. the sand is gypsum, created by a nearby lake. considering it is just sand, a surprising amount of plant and animals live in the dunes--many of them native in the desert around it. i went on a nature walk which pointed out a lot of the plants, many of which have great names like hoary rosemarymint, so-named because it can smell distinctly like rosemary and mint at different times of year. this was a really neat place to be, since it's almost like being at the beach in the middle of the desert. you can walk around most of the monument, up and down dunes, even rent little plastic discs to sled down the dunes. someone let me borrow their sled briefly: it's like snow sledding but the sand doesn't crunch like snow does.

i found myself a dune far enough away from the loud teenagers to sit and wait for the sunset. it was only about 5:30, so i had a while to wait. luckily, i had a book with me, as always. so i simply sat and read, enjoying the almost-at-the-beach feel. unfortunately, it was a little cloudy off to the west, so the sunset itself was not as spectacular as it could have been. this was ok, because the long shadows just before sunset, as in the picture above to the left, were fascinating. the mountains in the distance turned a beautiful color of blue. eventually, and just before it really got black (me being all alone in the middle of a dune field), i headed back to get a good night's sleep before the next day's festivities. below is a 360 degree view of where i sat and waited for the sunset.

from mesilla to missiles

after leaving my college cafe near new mexico state, i headed to nearby mesilla, which with the exception of parking is almost exactly as it was 150 years ago. it's a small new mexican town, with an emphasis on mexican. it used to be a stop on the butterfield overland trail around 1860, which was a forerunner of the pony express, running mail from st. louis to san francisco. why it came this far south, i don't know. another historic tidbit: the mexican government, which owned the land in 1848, sent people to settle the town and the area--by 1850 it had 800 people. the u.s., while it got most of the southwest in 1848, did not get mesilla and areas to the south and west until the gadsden purchase in 1853. it was a great little town with a fantastic square, including many shops selling depictions of saints, and the bookstore to the left. there were a few people selling their wares (again, mostly saints and wood or tin) as well as a couple of people playing spanish guitar. i wandered around, going into the shops and looking at things and people, and eventually decided to head to the church of san albino, a beautiful brick church on the northern side of the town square. while a church has been there as long as the town has, the present structure was built in 1908--not surprising that it is that recent, considering that it is made of brick. the inside of the church was downright stunning. beautiful, bright wood and a wonderful alter piece. they even had a recording playing of some monks chanting. i popped back outside for one more quick look around and then headed back to my car, since it was time for me to get a move-on.

my next stop was about 20 miles to the east of las cruces on the white sands missile range--that's it from the road. now, this was not my first time entering a secure military facility, and i think there are few things which freak me out as much. i had to park my car outside the base and then walk to the missile range museum, where i was headed. and i was instructed to only take pictures that face west or north--in other words, no pictures down range. in case i wanted to sell any of the secrets of the military. eventually i made it to the museum, which i walked through kind of quickly. i'm not really a military history person, but i wasn't going to pass up the chance to see the missile park. i did learn some interesting things, though. like that the missile in the awesome texan picture at right, the wac-corporal, was the first missile shot from white sands and the first man-made object to leave earth's atmosphere. and that on march 30, 1982 the space shuttle columbia landed at white sands--it's still an alternate landing site today. the northern part of the range is also where the trinity site is, where the first atomic bomb was tested. who knew all of this was done in new mexico? i suppose it had to happen somewhere.

after looking around the museum, i headed back outside to the missile park. now, if i had had some knowledge of missile before hand this might have been a very informative part of my trip. as it was, i mainly looked around, though i was struck by a few things. first of all, the most recent thing in the area was the patriot missile from the early 1990s, and after that the most recent missile was from the 70s--most were from the 50s. so they weren't giving away any secrets. secondly, there was this: a literaly flying saucer. the caption states, word for word, 'this spacecraft was a section of the voyager balloon system which was launched near roswell, nm, and landed on white sands missile range. these bright, shiny aeroshells projected an illusion of flying saucers. aeroshell was designed for slowing down a missile for a landing on mars. this display is believed to be the only one 'in captivity.' no wonder the people in roswell got freaked out. the other thing is that you really don't realize until you see all of these missile together how much money we have spent on this over the years. a lot. from white sands i headed north to alomogordo, where i will be spending the next couple nights as well, and will be learning more about space.