World Without Borders Idaho Grad Will Finally Get Long-Sought View Of Earth As Pilot Of Space Shuttle

From the time Jeff Ashby was a kid he had a photo of Earth, taken by an Apollo astronaut, hanging on the wall of his room.

Staring at the poster as a teenager, a college student, and finally a U.S. Navy test pilot, Ashby always got a little more inspiration for his curiosity of what lies beyond the horizon.

“Each year I looked at it, I would see different things in it that amazed me,” Ashby said recently.

Ashby, who graduated from the University of Idaho in 1976 with a degree in mechanical engineering, later received a master’s degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee before joining the Navy to eventually become a test pilot and commander.

In December 1994, Ashby got the call that will help him quench his insatiable curiosity of the great beyond. NASA tapped him to train as an astronaut and pilot for the space shuttle Columbia on a mission this December.

For the past three years, Ashby has prepared for the flight, and his interest in space has grown.

He recalls looking at the Earth photo in his childhood bedroom and noticing he could not see any borders, physical or political, or any evidence of life from space. It seemed so far away.

Now, as he prepares to orbit the globe, the photo has been replaced by a picture of Earth’s moon, and it doesn’t seem far away at all, he said.

Through his astronaut training, Ashby has become more aware of the opportunities on other planets for helping protect and replenish Earth’s resources. As the shuttle orbits 200 miles above the Earth’s surface, it will circle the planet every 90 minutes, meaning the astronauts on board will see a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes.

Ashby will also get an up-close view of the atmosphere he calls “very thin and very fragile.”

“I wonder if we can continue to dump thousands of tons of pollutants into the air” and sustain that fragile atmosphere for much longer, he said.

Ashby will also see the dwindling South American rain forest, currently being destroyed at a rate of 2.5 acres per second. Photos from space show large brown swaths of burnt ground where towering green trees used to be, and Ashby figured at the current rate of destruction the entire rain forest could be gone within 30 years.

“I can’t even predict what that would mean to our global ecology, but I don’t think it would be good,” Ashby said.

“I think we’re going to have to look elsewhere for resources, and eventually for a place to live.”

Virtually every body in the solar system could have something to offer Earth in terms of resources, he said, with the moon being a prime example.

People could one day temporarily move to the moon in the event of an asteroid colliding with Earth. Equipment could be tested to see whether it would work with further space exploration on other planets.

The Japanese are talking about the moon as a tourist destination in the not-so-distant future. And a potential energy source underneath the moon’s surface, known as “Helium 3,” could be used on earth and burn more cleanly and efficiently than gas or oil, Ashby said.

A trip to Mars, which takes about two years and could happen as soon as 2012, may help find a way to transport water from the planet’s polar ice caps back to Earth.

Ashby is awed by the red planet half the size of Earth. Despite its small stature in the solar system, Mars’ surface includes a volcano three times taller than Mount Everest, and a canyon 10 times the size of the Grand Canyon - a hole stretching the equivalent span of Los Angeles to New York City.

The construction of an international space station, beginning this December, could be the next major space project significantly changing the way people look at space, he said. The project will take about five years to complete, and require more space walks during those five years than have been done to date in the history of space travel.

Sixteen countries are involved, Ashby said, “16 different cultures, 16 different ways of thinking, and 16 different political systems.” Ashby sees the collaborative effort as the way of the future, as Earth’s residents look to space to improve their lives at home.

“This is literally the whole world,” Ashby said.