OUR HOME – THE SPACESHIP EARTH (SSE)

Are you ready to join me on this mind-expanding adventure in exploring old, familiar things in new, exciting ways?  To start, each one of us is going to have to join in viewing the earth as it really is…magnificent, magical, Spaceship Earth (SSE).  Here we go…

WAIT A MINUTE!

Our earth—a mind boggling, mammoth spaceship on a cosmic trip?  We can’t even feel the slightest movement!  We are all going to have to stop and give this some serious thought.

We know that a spaceship travels at unimagined speeds on a set course through space while sustaining life aboard it. Well, thinking of SSE, we know of at least two of our apparent speeds.  One is proven by our days turning into nights and turning into days again, as the Ship rotates on its axis.  Another is proven by seasonal changes due to the tilt of the axis of the Ship as it rotates around the sun every year, roughly 365 days.

Even the Ancient Sumerians knew we were in space.

ZODIAC is a band-shaped section of the sky that contains 12 special constellations.  The zodiac extends about 9 degrees on either side of the ecliptic, the yearly path the sun seems to follow in relation to other stars.  The word zodiac comes from an ancient Greek word meaning circle of animals.  Farmers looked to the constellations to tell them of the changing seasons and when to plant crops.

 

 The World Book Encyclopedia, 2002

 Encyclopedia Americana, 1998

 

Looking up into the sky on a clear night tells us that we are in space—or at least completely surrounded by it.  If we’re completely surrounded by space, then we must be in it along with all of those magnificent stars, planets, constellations, and universes that are—or were—traveling with us on our journey.

Reasoning tells us (see Chapter 4) that if we, like other spaceships, are traveling through space we    must be headed somewhere.  We are.  It is into deep outer space.  Eternity is our time frame!

OUR NEIGHBORS

Let’s discuss some of our “neighbors,” both near and far, who are accompanying us on our   journey.

First are the seven known neighboring planets to earth in our Solar System …plus Pluto.

NASA website 2017

	SUN	Mercury	Venus	SSE	Mars	Jupiter	Saturn	Uranus	Neptune	Pluto
MASS (SSE=1)	1,988,800	.055	.815	1	0.107	317.8	95.2	14.5	17.1	.003
DISTANCE FROM SUN Mkm	–	57	108	150	228	779	1430	2880	4500	5910

 Universe Today website 2017

 To help us understand the vastness of space and SSE’s more distant neighbors, we should note how our astronomers measure distance in space.  It is not in inches, feet, or even miles.  It is measured in the ultimate speed: the speed of light—186,000 miles per second.  How far does light travel in a year?  Just think…seconds into minutes, into hours, into days, into a year.  Light travels 6 trillion miles a year, and SSE’s more distant neighbors are light years away!

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Our more distant neighbors are much farther away than those in our solar system.  They are  grouped around us within our galaxy, the Milky Way.  These neighbors, numbering in the millions—some say billions—come in all sizes and shapes.

Our own solar system is hidden in the inner side of the Orion spiral arm of our galaxy.  Both our solar system and our galaxy are accompanying Spaceship Earth on her journeys into outer space, or more correctly, SSE is accompanying them on their journeys into outer space. 

A view of the Milky Way from “above” the galactic plane.  The position of the spiral arms and central region is shown as mapped by radio astronomers.  Our sun is one tiny dot in one of the upper, central arms.

NOW, BACK TO OUR HOME… SPACESHIP EARTH

 Remember: propulsion was a result of the movement of our solar system within our galaxy through space, starting with the Big Bang*—or by Instant Creation, if you so choose—and our course was decided upon then, straight into the exciting and mysterious void of deep outer space.

Here are some of the main features of the Ship.  More facts on these and other mind-bending  features follow later in the manual/handbook.

* For simplicity, we will ignore other more recent theories.

+ SSE: A SELF-CONTAINED, “SEALED BOX”

Like any spaceship, SSE must be totally self-contained for its long journey.  To accomplish this it was enclosed in an invisible “sealed box.”  Within the box many living things regenerate themselves through miraculously designed, and often very complicated, highly technical, perpetual recycling systems.  These recycling systems have been developed, refined, and in continuous use for millions of years. They seem simple in appearance and operation, but they definitely are not.

Almost everything in the Ship is designed to be used again and again in all of the life cycles on the Main Deck (the earth’s land, waters and air) and within the sealed box surrounding it.

Exceptions to this recycling mechanism are sunlight, the meteorites and asteroids that enter the box, and the hydrogen, gases and human-made objects that leave it.  Practically nothing new is brought aboard SSE and almost nothing leaves it.

We humans, in limited,  non-polluting balanced numbers with wildlife and nature, would have all we would ever need to survive very well here on the Main Deck throughout eternity.  For this we must thank the ship’s unique operating systems and particularly their Designer.