Mountain Views News          Saturday, September 5, 2015

THE WORLD AROUND US

16

 Mountain Views News Saturday, September 5, 2015 


BEYOND PLUTO: NASA’S NEW HORIZONS TEAM SELECTS POTENTIAL KUIPER BELT FLYBY TARGET


NASA has selected the potential next destination 
for the New Horizons mission to visit after its 
historic July 14 flyby of the Pluto system. The 
destination is a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO) 
known as 2014 MU69, which orbits the Sun nearly 
a billion miles beyond Pluto.

 “Even as the New Horizons spacecraft speeds 
away from Pluto out into the Kuiper Belt, and the 
data from the exciting encounter with this new 
world is being streamed back to Earth, we are 
looking outward to the next destination for this 
intrepid explorer,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut 
and chief of the NASA Science Mission Directorate 
at the agency headquarters in Washington.

 The 2003 National Academy of Sciences’ 
Planetary Decadal Survey strongly recommended 
that the first mission to the Kuiper Belt include 
flybys of Pluto and small KBOs, in order to 
sample the diversity of objects in that previously 
unexplored region of the solar system.

 Early target selection was important; the team 
needs to direct New Horizons toward the object 
this year in order to perform any extended mission 
with healthy fuel margins. New Horizons will 
perform a series of four maneuvers in late October 
and early November to set its course toward 2014 
MU69, which it expects to reach on January 1, 2019.

 “2014 MU69 is a great choice because it is just 
the kind of ancient KBO, formed where it orbits 
now, that the Decadal Survey desired us to fly by,” 
said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan 
Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) 
in Boulder, Colorado. “Moreover, this KBO costs 
less fuel to reach [than other candidate targets], 
leaving more fuel for the flyby, for ancillary 
science, and greater fuel reserves to protect against 
the unforeseen.”

 New Horizons was originally designed to fly 
beyond the Pluto system and explore additional 
Kuiper Belt objects. The spacecraft carries extra 
hydrazine fuel for a KBO flyby; its communications 
system is designed to work from far beyond Pluto; 
its power system is designed to operate for many 
more years; and its scientific instruments were 
designed to operate in light levels much lower than 
it will experience during the 2014 MU69 flyby.

 Finding a suitable KBO flyby target was no easy 
task. Starting a search in 2011 using some of the 
largest ground-based telescopes on Earth, the New 
Horizons team found several dozen KBOs, but 
none were reachable within the fuel supply aboard 
the spacecraft.

 The powerful Hubble Space Telescope came to 
the rescue in summer 2014, discovering five objects, 
since narrowed to two, within New Horizons’ flight 
path. Scientists estimate the average diameter of 
2014 MU69 to be about 30 miles.

 The Kuiper Belt is a disk-shaped region in the 
outer solar system, lying beyond the orbit of 
Neptune and containing thousands of small, icy 
celestial bodies. Its existence was predicted in 1951 
by the Dutch-born astronomer Gerard Kuiper. In 
1992, after five years of searching, astronomers 
David Jewitt and Jane Luu discovered the first 
KBO.

 Unlike asteroids, KBOs have been heated only 
slightly by the Sun, and are thought to represent 
a well preserved, deep-freeze sample of what the 
outer solar system was like following its birth 4.6 
billion years ago.

 The New Horizons spacecraft—currently 3 
billion miles from Earth—is just starting to 
transmit the bulk of the images and other data, 
stored on its digital recorders, from its historic July 
encounter with the Pluto system. The spacecraft is 
healthy and operating normally.

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com. 


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

NAKED AND AFRAID 

[Nyerges is a teacher and self-
reliance instructor who has 
been teaching since 1974. He is 
the author of “How to Survive 
Anywhere,” and other books. 
He can be reached at www.
SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com, or 
Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 
90041.] 

 Yes, that was me you saw in the very beginning of the 
Nicaragua epidsode of “Naked and Afraid,” one of the 
latest in a series of TV shows which contain not much 
entertainment and mostly useless information. 


 If you haven’t heard of the show, it’s one of the many 
“reality” shows pandering to the current interest in 
“survival skills.” A decade or more ago, it all began with 
“Survivor,” which was a contest to win a million dollars 
if you could survive to the end of all the competitions. 
It was like Regis’ “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” in 
costume. Since then, there has been “Dual Survival,” 
“Tethered,” “Alone,” and many other so-called reality 
shows where we see what it takes for a few guys to eke 
out a meal in the woods without killing each other. 

 I’ve heard good things about “Naked and Afraid” 
because it’s not a contest, per se. Your task is to just be 
out in the woods, with no clothes, and just a few pieces 
of gear that the producers let you have. The people who 
took off their clothes for the show were all some sort of 
survival expert, and some lasted a few days, and others 
made it through the full three weeks. 

 But I’d never actually seen the show when the 
producers called and asked if I’d train two upcoming 
contestants. They wanted to have a show with two fans, 
viewers who were not survival experts. They wanted 
me to give them sufficient training so they’d at least 
have a chance. 

 I agreed to train them and scheduled a day to be with 
each contestant. The producer explained to me what 
skills were most important. The two people would 
be given a choice a few items, and they would not be 
allowed to pick up and use any random debris that they 
happened to find during their experience. Everything I 
taught had to be based on natural materials. 

 I spent each day going through the same regimen of 
skills with each contestant. 

 I shared how to purify water (boil it!), how to make 
twine from natural fibre, and how to make a net. The 
net could theoretically be used to make clothing. I 
taught them how to make fire using two of the most 
ancient methods: the bow and drill, and the hand drill. 
Each of them succeeded in producing a coal using the 
materials I had brought. 

 We also spent time making a lean-to, which would 
be the most probably sort of shelter to set up for a two-
week experience. 

 I didn’t take any time showing them edible plants, 
because I had no idea what sort of plants they’d see 
where they were going. However, I did show them how 
to make an ages-old bird trap with sticks and twine. 

 I also suggested that they should cover their bodies 
with mud and/or charcoal to avoid sunburn and insect 
bites. After all, they were going to romp around for two 
weeks in the buff! 

 Both contestants were alert and seemed eager to 
learn each thing I shared. But I had no idea how much 
was sinking in. After all, I learned all these skills, one 
by one, little by little, with plenty of time to practice 
and perfect. I cannot imagine how I would do if I 
were thrown into an unknown territory, and with no 
clothes! 

Months later, the man and woman spent their two 
weeks in the wild, and finally the show was aired 
sometime in August. I was able to view it from a DVD, 
and it was the first full episode of the show that I have 
seen. 

 Before I’d seen this show, I didn’t think there would 
be much value in watching two naked people try 
to simply get by for two weeks, finding their water, 
making shelter, trying to eat whatever they could. My 
view didn’t change after watching the show. I did feel a 
bit glad that at least one thing that I taught them turned 
out to be useful – they managed to capture a bird from 
the trap I showed them. But otherwise, I felt like I could 
have been watching refugees from the latest war trying 
to survive from the enemy. Except, in the case of fleeing 
refugees, there is a pressing need to act, and to act now, 
and to move, and to find food, and shelter, and first aid. 

In the Nicaraguan “Naked and Afraid,” I saw two 
people who steadily grew dirtier, who didn’t drink 
enough water, who seemed to just hang around the 
same area not doing a whole lot. To me, it was sad, 
and a poor example of entertainment. Yes, of course, 
it was a very real challenge. Yes, they made it through 
two weeks. But that was a very unrealistic experience, 
except that now those two knows that they could do 
very well, with clothes and with equipment, in a bad 
situation. 

 Trouble is, most of the real survival situations in 
the world are people-caused, and involve war or other 
turmoil. Survival situations in the woods are far more 
rare, and the person is always clothed and usually has 
at least some basic gear. 

 The hour show moved along quickly enough, though 
in retrospect, there wasn’t much action. Eating a snake 
seemed to invigorate them and raise their spirits, 
though they needed a can or something to collect water 
and purify it and drink it regularly. Yes, they ate a bird 
near the end of their experience, when they had already 
lost much weight. The man lost 30 pounds in two 
weeks, and the woman lost 10 pounds. The woman’s 
body was covered in insect bites, and I presume they 
either forgot what I told them about protecting their 
skin, or they just didn’t want to do that. 

 If you’re serious about learning basic survival skills, 
you’d do better to enroll in a field trip with a local 
college or even a Meetup group. As for entertaining 
TV, much of television has lost any focus whatsoever. 
I’d turn it off and get outside!

IT’S HARD BEING A FOOL WHEN 
THERE’S SO MUCH COMPETITION

Ever since I was a young lad, I have had 
a competitive spirit. Quite frankly, I like 
to win at everything I do. After all, who 
doesn’t.

 Being married has accelerated that 
competitive spirit, sometimes to my 
personal detriment. Overall, it has been a 
rather good run and the Gracious Mistress 
of the Parsonage and I just celebrated 
another wedding anniversary. I know who 
won in this competition, but don’t let her 
know. I am a gracious winner.

 I certainly was not a fool to get married; 
it turned out to be a rather major win for 
me. What was on the other side of the 
matrimonial aisle, I am not quite sure. 
I have a “don’t ask and she won’t tell” 
philosophy here.

 The fact that we have made it this long 
is a tribute to my wisdom in selecting the 
proper wife. Do not let this get out, but I 
will take credit wherever I can find credit. 
Just look at my bank account and you 
will know I need some credit. It has been 
a marvelous journey to say the least, not, 
however, without its difficulties.

 Every time I get into some kind of 
“difficulty,” my wife will look at me and say 
rather stiffly, “Are you acting like a fool?”

 After being married for so long, you 
would think she would get the idea that 
I am not acting at all. I wish I could act 
like a fool, to be able to turn it on and off 
at will. I must say that being a fool comes 
rather naturally to me, no acting needed 
whatsoever. I wonder what it would be like 
to act like a fool and where would a person 
get the training for that kind of acting? 
Perhaps some political university.

 For years, I have met so many people who 
have a PhD in the thespian arts of being 
a fool. I am not sure where they get their 
degree or how long it takes to get that kind 
of a degree. But let it be clear, I do not have 
any degree in the art of being a fool.

 Not being a “Professional Fool” I am not 
in competition with anybody else.

 But that does not keep the good wife from 
saying to me on occasion, “Would you quit 
fooling around?”

 I am not exactly sure what I am supposed 
to do at that point, I do not want to ask her 
what she means because I know she would 
tell me. Do I really want to know? There is 
something to be said for being in the dark 
about some things. This is definitely one of 
them.

 Of course, if I knew what she meant by 
“fooling around,” I could make some 
adjustments in my personal behavior. As it 
stands, I am only guessing.

 I get into trouble because many times 
when I am caught red-handed, as they say, 
I justify what I am doing (big mistake) by 
telling her, “I was just fooling.”

 To which she usually responds, “I know 
that and I wish you would quit fooling 
around.”

 Then she says something that is rather 
confusing to me. “You can’t fool me.”

 I have often wondered what she means 
by that. This is where the competitive 
spirit kicks into high gear. I ponder very 
enthusiastically the thought, what would 
it take to fool her? If I can only figure 
that out, life would take on a brand-new 
exuberance.

 It is easy to fool other people, particularly 
those that do not know you that well. I 
might as well say it is also easy to be fooled 
by other people. That does not matter to me 
one bit. But if I could pull off a major “fool 
you” on my wife it would make my day.

 I am not sure that it would take much. As 
I look around, I realize it is hard being a 
fool was so much competition.

 If I could find the perfect fool, perhaps 
I could get some pointers on how to be 
a better fool. Maybe I could learn some 
special techniques associated with the craft 
of acting a fool.

 I know my wife is an expert in identifying 
fools and foolish things for that matter. 
Every once in a while, I try to find out what 
her secret is, but, being the fool I am, I 
never seem to be good enough to fool her.

 Just when I think I have accomplished a 
trophy level of being a fool, my wife steps 
in and says, “You’re not fooling me in the 
least.” Then she flashes one of her smiles 
and goes back to the arduous task of being 
my wife, which she has done so brilliantly.

 I suppose I am a low-level fool in just 
about every level of my life. There is one 
level, however, where I am not a fool. I 
confess to making foolish statements, 
doing foolish things and just plain acting a 
fool. But I have discovered an area where I 
am no longer a fool.

 I think David had it right when he said, 
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is 
no God. Corrupt are they, and have done 
abominable iniquity: there is none that 
doeth good” (Psalms 53:1).

 Some people deny God until they need 
help. Then, they call out to God. The wise 
man does not deny God, but pulls Him 
into his daily living experience.

 

 Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family 
of God Fellowship, PO Box 831313, Ocala, 
FL 34483. He lives with his wife, Martha, 
in Silver Springs Shores. Call him at 1-866-
552-2543 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. 
His web site is www.jamessnyderministries.
com.

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