Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

The Final Frontier

This is not my first post about space, nor will it be my last. I'll let you in on a little secret, if I didn't have such a problem with motion sickness and numbers, I'd be an astronaut floating around in space right now - a space librarian! But because I get nauseous on the merry-go-round and need my fingers to do the most basic math, it looks like I'm stuck here on Earth. So I live out my dreams of space travel in the form of books and movies. And as for movies, I think the new Star Trek is pretty much the most fun I've had watching a movie in a long time. So when I heard that a group of three Trekkie astronauts were going to watch the new movie from the International Space Station, I decided that was pretty much the coolest thing ever!

I am not a Trekkie, but I have a respect for those who live by the laws of the Federation and its Prime Directive. And I also love the costumes and makeup! Star Trek Fans and Costume Art by Heather R. Joseph-Witham is a tiny little book that wants to grow up and be a coffee-table favorite! It starts with some well done and thoughtful essays on Star Trek fandom - and all that entails - and then has more than 50 pictures of Trekkies dressed as Starfleet officers, Klingons, Romulans and more. These people are serious! And just in case you want to make your own costume, we have a book for that too!

But I realize that space, real space, is not all fun and games. It's extremely dangerous, and for us human beings, there is very little protection between life and death. I can still remember exactly where I was sitting when I heard about the Challenger* explosion. And I remember waking up to the news about Columbia*. You may remember that the Columbia disaster lead to NASA's decision to ground the shuttle program indefinitely. What many people don't know is that this decision meant three men who were only planning on a fourteen-week stay on the International Space Station were then, for all intents and purposes, stranded up there. And when they finally figured out a way home, it was a most harrowing return flight. Chris Jones does a really fantastic job of retelling this thrilling true story in his book Too Far From Home (later published as Out of Orbit). You won't be able to put it down!

Living on a space station, in very close quarters, has to be difficult. The complete lack of privacy, combined with the remoteness of being in the vast, dark sea of space, must elicit an odd combination of feelings. One novel, subsequently made into a film (twice), that in my mind speaks to these feelings of cramped loneliness, is Solaris. Originally written by Polish author Stanislaw Lem in the 1960's, Solaris tells the story of a space station orbiting a distant alien planet. The scientists on-board are supposedly studying the planet, but the opposite seems to be the case. It was made into a movie in 1972 by the amazing Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovskii and then again in 2002 here in the U.S. starring George Clooney. Tarkovskii's version is my personal favorite. In any case, the story is deeply poetic and powerful.

But what would space travel really be like? Well, that's simple and I can tell you in three words. Ready? Pigs...in...space! Your library has all of the Best of the Muppet Show available, including Volume 4 which includes the brilliantly funny John Cleese starring in "Pigs in Space". You can not beat that kind of realism! But seriously, the Jim Henson Company - creator of the Muppets - does seem to have the inside scoop on extraterrestrial life, as they clearly showed in their series Farscape that aired on the SciFi Channel from 1999 to 2003.

Space is indeed the final frontier and I suggest using the library as your ticket to the solar system and beyond!

* From outside the library, you will need a valid Multnomah County Library Card to read these articles from the Library's Facts.com database.