Part of a series rescued and renovated posts when Singing Science was starting out as Professor Karmadillo

To celebrate 50 years since the first manned space flight ‘Radio Gagarin’ was written. I wrote a guest diary entry at this years Geek Pop Festival (link expired, but I found a copy of the text which I have placed below) which explains things in more detail – its worth a read, in particular to hear about Kurosov, the guy who made the Soviet space program what it was.

You can listen to the song here…

…and read the blog post I wrote for Geekpop that accompanied this below:

> For last years Geek Pop I wrote a song ‘Arabidopsis’ which as well as
> being designed as an ode to the little plant that forms the basis of
> much work in genomics was meant to mirror the way in which the general
> public knows about the groovy people who use and design around
> technology, but know nothing of the labwork that goes on in the
> background. This year I worked on a song to celebrate 50 years since the
> first manned flight in space – Radio Gagarin. A song, as its title
> implies, discussing Gagarin climbing into the Vostok 1 and shooting out
> into space. Personally I like the fact at the end of this song there are
> actual excerpts of Gagarin on the radio. He is saying in Russian that he
> feels good and the visibility is good – basically, everything is going
> to plan.
>
> A huge reason why everything went to plan was down to Sergei Korolev,
> chief engineer of Soviet space program at the time. The Arabidopsis of
> this story if you will. This guy has a tale that must be told, and I was
> going to tell it on my guest blog entry for Geek Pop 2011. However,
> yesterday The Guardian did a more thoroughly researched version of this
> tale than I could have produced, full of insight into the politics and
> personnel at the time so I will direct you to
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/13/yuri-gagarin-first-space-korolev>
> that article. (
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/13/yuri-gagarin-first-space-korolev>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/13/yuri-gagarin-first-space-korolev).
> The tale of Korolev is one of those worthy of an epic
> Russian-equivalent-of-Hollywood biopic. It is a testament to the mans
> character that in spite of spending 10 years doing hard labour (during
> which time he lost all his teeth) in one of the worst gulags Stalin had
> to offer he came back to lead the Soviet Space program into its golden
> age. Certainly something worth considering if your main complaint is
> paperwork required for grant proposals.
>
> As the US decommisions it space shuttle program the only way to get
> people up into space will essentially be from a rocket based on Korolevs
> fifty year old design, which demonstrates just how good the designs are.
>
> But what about the cutting edge of sending people into space? The next
> big step that will really capture the publics imagination is when
> someone does to Mars what Neil Armstrong did unto the Moon. And in this
> respect it seems to me that the big problem is not about the electronic,
> and mechanical machinery to get people there and bring them back, but
> the organic machinery that makes those people tick. The physiology and
> the psychology of being in a cramped capsule with the same group of
> people for two years is going to be difficult to get through.
>
> There is currently a simulation going on in Moscow of this scenario,
> where a group of people are locked in an small enclosed space, due to
> ‘land back on earth’ in November this year. Last month they landed on
> the ‘fake mars’ and two weeks ago they blasted off back to earth. After
> a previous test had a punch up (a New Years glass of bubbly lead to two
> guys fighting over a woman), the team chosen are all male and they will
> be denied alcohol. This one has people of mixed nationalities and seems
> to be going well, though the lack of gravity for the length of time when
> they do it for real would also make things interesting.
>
> Personally I think back to a Ray Bradbury description of someone leaving
> Earth for Mars from his Martian Chronicles collection, and know that
> however much the child in me wanted to go on such a journey, the
> isolation for that length of time would not be something my neuroses and
> I would take. But I salute those who will do it in the future.