spaceship of imagination

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center serves as the Official NASA Visitor Center for Marshall Space Flight Center and is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. Home to Space Camp, Aviation Challenge Camp, Space Camp Robotics, and U.S. Cyber Camp the it is the most comprehensive U.S. manned spaceflight hardware museum in the world.

The full exhibit is an inspiration to behold, especially the Saturn V Rocket on display: at 363 ft, it towers higher than the Statue of Liberty. Under the Saturn Rocket were scientists that worked on various components of the program, eagerly sharing their stories and recollections of history. It was great swapping stories of their engineering insights and my creative contributions to NASA OPSPARC. It got me to thinking that before the rocket was manifest, it was an idea in the minds of those building them.

...But what are they, anyway?

I have an idea about ideas. Much like energy in the universe, I don’t think they are created or destroyed. Somewhere in the recesses of our mind, like Carl Sagan’s Spaceship of Imagination, we are folding space/time to travel where they exist, bringing them back to our local coordinates.

In that respect, anything made whether it be a piece of art, a composition of music, or an instructional blueprint is more the result of data transmission (∿) than linear output. Either way, it’s a fun mindset to build from. It frees the creator from ego attached to the idea, and celebrates the process as part of a larger continuum.