Astronaut says Mexico needs its own space program
November 25th, 2009 . by TexasFredAstronaut says Mexico needs its own space program
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A NASA astronaut says he wants to help Mexican officials start the country’s first space agency.
Astronaut Jose Hernandez says he has no plans to leave his job at NASA, but hopes to help Mexico’s program get off the ground.
Hernandez, the U.S.-born son of Mexican migrant farm workers who spent much of his childhood moving between Mexico and the U.S., lobbied for a space program in meetings with Mexican lawmakers Tuesday.
He says officials must invest more money in science, technology and education to make Mexico more competitive and diversify its economy.
Legislators have set aside 10 million pesos ($775,000) for the Mexican Space Agency in next year’s budget, but the program has not yet been officially established.
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Astronaut says Mexico needs its own space program
This is terribly reminiscent of a story I heard many years ago. The Mexican government wanted a Navy, a big one. They wanted to be a world power on the high seas.
The Mexican government began to do research on exactly what it was going to take to build a Navy. They priced the ships they wanted to build and were sad to find that they were immediately out of luck due to the massive costs involved.
Not to be deterred, they then began to look into buying used ships from other nations, ships that were about be retired and decommissioned.
As it turns out, even that was beyond the price range of the Mexican government, so, they had an idea that maybe they could just buy one mighty ship, and the search continued.
They got the price of a used aircraft carrier, a battle ship, a cruiser, a destroyer, even a used submarine was considered. Again, ALL of these vessels were out of reach for the Mexicans.
It was at this time that the most brilliant Mexican designer to ever live came forth and offered a solution. He would build the Mexican government a ship, a submarine actually, and he would do so at a very cheap rate as well.
So, this brilliant Mexican engineer and his team begin construction on Mexico’s very 1st submarine, but, there was a bit of a glitch. There was only enough money to build a 2-man *midget sub*.
The work on this *midget sub* continued for several weeks and the sub was finally launched.
The crowd roared as the crew boarded the new Mexican Navy sub to begin sea trials off of the Mexican west coast. What follows is a description of the activities in the ensuing weeks.
The Capatin and Engineer are in position and the Captain says: “Senor Engineer, theese is your Captain, take theese submarine down to 50 feet and scheck for leaks!”
The Engineer replies, “Senor Captain, theese is Senor Enginner, the submarine is at 50 feet and we got NO leaks!”
The Captain says, “Senor Engineer, theese is your Captain, take theese submarine down to 100 feet and scheck for leaks!”
The Engineer replies, “Senor Captain, theese is Senor Enginner, the submarine is at 100 feet and we got NO leaks!”
The Captain says, “Senor Engineer, theese is your Captain, take theese submarine down to 250 feet and scheck for leaks!”
The Engineer replies, “Senor Captain, theese is Senor Enginner, the submarine is at 250 feet and we got NO leaks!”
The Captain says, “Senor Engineer, theese is your Captain, take theese submarine down to 500 feet and scheck for leaks!”
Sadly, as the sub was diving to 500 feet, it suddenly broke up and was completely destroyed.
