Archives For Astronomy
Martian Tribute to C.S. Lewis
December 9, 2014 — 16 Comments
Mere Inkling recently named a crater on Mars, in honor of C.S. Lewis. The crater's name is Malacandra, which was the name for the red planet in the first volume of Lewis' Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet.
The naming of Malacandra Crater was done through an organization preparing the map which will be used by the Mars One Mission. Mars One is the optimistic international effort to establish a permanent human settlement on the red planet, beginning in 2024.
The über-adventurous (or foolhardy) are able to apply today for consideration to become an astronaut.
The crater naming project is not sponsored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Instead, it is coordinated by Uwingu, a for profit company that has a goal of raising $10,000,000 for grants to scientists and educators promoting space exploration.
Due to its limited* budget, Mere Inkling was only able to name a small crater. However, it's not the expense, it's the thought that counts.
In addition to Malacandra Crater, I named the impact mark directly to its south in honor of my grandchildren. The process allows one to include a dedication for each named crater. For theirs, I wrote:
Stroud Crater is named in honor of the brilliant grandchildren of Rob & Delores Stroud. Andrew, Ariana, Dominic, Arabelle, Rachel, Rebecca, Kaelyn & Asher. Whether they grow up to be astrophysicists, veterinarians or educators, we know they will all make this world a better place. Soli Deo Gloria.
The tiny basins named above lie in Aurorae Chaos. It's a rugged neighborhood, but there are surprisingly few craters in the immediate vicinity. I'm always seeking opportunities to encourage my grandchildren to study science, and I hope this will pique their interests, both now and in the years to come.
C.S. Lewis is not primarily known today as a writer of science fiction, but his series (also known as the Cosmic Trilogy, or the Ransom Trilogy, after its protagonist) is quite good. In fact, it was the very first of Lewis' works I ever read. I was introduced to them by a Christian friend during my college years.
Several influences converged to move Lewis to venture into science fiction. In 1938, he thanked a friend for his praise of Out of the Silent Planet, and wrote:
You are obviously much better informed than I about this type of literature and the only one I can add to your list is Voyage to Arcturus by David Lyndsay (Methuen) which is out of print but a good bookseller will probably get you a copy for about 5 to 6 shillings. It is entirely on the imaginative and not at all on the scientific wing.
What immediately spurred me to write was Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and an essay in J. B. S. Haldane's Possible Worlds both of which seemed to take the idea of such travel seriously and to have the desperately immoral outlook which I try to pillory in Weston.
I like the whole interplanetary idea as a mythology and simply wished to conquer for my own (Christian) point of view what has always hitherto been used by the opposite side. I think Wells' 1st Men in the Moon the best of the sort I have read.**
Lewis then appends a comment referring to the other planets in our solar system, but intriguing in light of the recent discovery of numerous planets throughout the galaxy. "The more astronomy we know the less likely it seems that other planets are inhabited: even Mars has practically no oxygen."
One of Lewis often overlooked science fiction short stories, "Ministering Angels," is set on Mars. It begins in the following way.
The Monk, as they called him, settled himself on the camp chair beside his bunk and stared through the window at the harsh sand and black-blue sky of Mars. He did not mean to begin his 'work' for ten minutes yet. Not, of course, the work he had been brought there to do. He was the meteorologist of the party, and his work in that capacity was largely done; he had found out whatever could be found out.
There was nothing more, within the limited radius he could investigate, to be observed for at least twenty-five days. And meteorology had not been his real motive. He had chosen three years on Mars as the nearest modern equivalent to a hermitage in the desert.
He had come there to meditate: to continue the slow, perpetual rebuilding of that inner structure which, in his view, it was the main purpose of life to rebuild. And now his ten minutes' rest was over. He began with his well-used formula. 'Gentle and patient Master, teach me to need men less and to love thee more.' Then to it. There was no time to waste.
There were barely six months of this lifeless, sinless, unsuffering wilderness ahead of him. Three years were short . . . but when the shout came he rose out of his chair with the practised alertness of a sailor.
The Botanist in the next cabin responded to the same shout with a curse. His eye had been at the microscope when it came. It was maddening. Constant interruption. A man might as well try to work in the middle of Piccadilly as in this infernal camp. And his work was already a race against time. Six months more . . . and he had hardly begun.
The flora of Mars, these tiny, miraculously hardy organisms, the ingenuity of their contrivances to live under all but impossible conditions—it was a feast for a lifetime. He would ignore the shout. But then came the bell. All hands to the main room.
("Ministering Angels," Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories).
Malacandra Crater may be a small feature on a vast and curious planet, but it is a tribute to an author of immense and lasting talent.
* i.e. nonexistent
** The following titles mentioned by Lewis are available for free digital download:
Voyage to Arcturus
The First Men in the Moon
In Books, C.S. Lewis, Education, Modern Life, Nature	Angels, Astronauts, Astronomy, C.S. Lewis, Colonization, Crater, Craters, Education, Geography, Haldane, IAU, Lyndsay, Malacandra, Mars, Martian, Meteorology, Names, Planets, Science, Science Fiction, Scifi, Stapledon, Teaching, Tributes, Uwingu, Wells
Interplanetary Life
How many galaxies exist out there? How many stars? How many planets? Billions upon billions, apparently.
Of all of those myriad worlds, how many boast life?
C.S. Lewis pondered that subject in an essay entitled "Religion and Rocketry." He said that either result—an absence of life, or an abundance of living creatures throughout the cosmos—can be used by atheists to deny the existence of our Creator.
In my time I have heard two quite different arguments against my religion put forward in the name of science. When I was a youngster, people used to say that the universe was not only not friendly to life but positively hostile to it.
Life had appeared on this planet by a millionth chance, as if at one point there had been a breakdown of the elaborate defenses generally enforced against it. We should be rash to assume that such a leak had occurred more than once. Probably life was a purely terrestrial abnormality. We were alone in an infinite desert. Which just showed the absurdity of the Christian idea that there was a Creator who was interested in living creatures.
But then came Professor F.B. Hoyle, the Cambridge cosmologist, and in a fortnight or so everyone I met seemed to have decided that the universe was probably quite well provided with habitable globes and with livestock to inhabit them. Which just showed (equally well) the absurdity of Christianity with its parochial idea that Man could be important to God.
Lewis, brilliant and honest, then predicts the future. Believers and cynics alike, he says, will seek to interpret all new data in a fashion that proves their own, preexisting beliefs.
This is a warning of what we may expect if we ever do discover animal life (vegetable does not matter) on another planet. Each new discovery, even every new theory, is held at first to have the most wide-reaching theological and philosophical consequences.
It is seized by unbelievers as the basis for a new attack on Christianity; it is often, and more embarrassingly, seized by injudicious believers as the basis for a new defence.
Fascinating as these comments are, they merely represent Lewis' introduction to the subject. The heart of his concern is this—what would it mean if we should one day encounter alien beings created by God on a distant world?
In a moment I'll share with you one of the most provocative thoughts Lewis expresses in this essay, but first take a moment to watch this amazing reminder of the vastness of our universe and the power of its Creator.
A video presentation like this can leave us feeling rather small, lost in the abyss of an immeasurable vastness. Or, it can inspire us. It can baptize us with an increased appreciation for the majesty of the One who loved each of us so profoundly that he sent his only begotten Son into the world to redeem us from destruction. I hope your reaction is the latter.
I promised another fascinating observation from Lewis, and here it is. He poses the question of precisely what might transpire if humanity encounters another sentient race. His Christian interpretation may shock some readers, but I believe he is right.
It sets one dreaming—to interchange thoughts with beings whose thinking had an organic background wholly different from ours (other senses, other appetites), to be unenviously humbled by intellects possibly superior to our own yet able for that very reason to descend to our level, to descend lovingly ourselves if we met innocent and childlike creatures who could never be as strong or as clever as we, to exchange with the inhabitants of other worlds that especially keen and rich affection which exists between unlikes; it is a glorious dream.
But make no mistake. It is a dream. We are fallen. We know what our race does to strangers. Man destroys or enslaves every species he can. Civilized man murders, enslaves, cheats, and corrupts savage man. Even inanimate nature he turns into dust bowls and slag-heaps. There are individuals who don't. But they are not the sort who are likely to be our pioneers in space.
Our ambassador to new worlds will be the needy and greedy adventurer or the ruthless technical expert. They will do as their kind has always done. What that will be if they meet things weaker than themselves, the black man and the red man can tell. If they meet things stronger, they will be, very properly, destroyed.
Lewis continues, addressing related themes in this amazing work that seems more prescient each year. He next compares our encounters with fallen, and unfallen races. I highly commend the essay, which appears in The World's Last Night and Other Essays.
If you prefer a fictional consideration of these same topics, I encourage you to read C.S. Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength).
Appreciation goes to a retired USAF chaplain colleague of mine, Chuck McGathy, for bringing this Hubble video to my attention.
In C.S. Lewis, Christian Life, The Future, Theological Matters	Aliens, Astronomy, Atheism, C.S. Lewis, Cosmic, Cosmology, Creation, Evangelism, Galaxies, God, Hubble, Outer Space, Planets, Science Fiction, Sin, Space, UFO, Universe, Worlds