'Vision', a Plea to Save the James Webb Space Telescope
The United States Congress wants to cancel Hubble's successor. A very short film about why they shouldn't.
NOTE: Scroll down to skip directly to the video. If you enjoy it, please come back to learn more.
In a recent chat with Callum Sutherland of Milky Way Musings, he told me about the Save the James Webb Space Telescope video contest. Callum had released a short sample of his submission, at the time still in production, and suggested I put one together as well. The contest seeks to raise awareness of the impending cancellation of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the United States Congress, and the wealth of scientific opportunities that would be jettisoned along with it.
Abandoning the Webb, already under construction, would be a tragic loss. Hubble has now had it's final repair, and Webb is meant to be the follow up. Many people in the know have been waiting a long time to get this bird in the air, because the opportunities for discovery are profound.
There are a few people in the public sphere talking about the impending loss, like Neil deGrasse Tyson did on HBO's Real Time a few weeks back, but so far the public seems either unaware or indifferent. Both Callum and I are Canadians, so neither of us can sign the petition to convince Congress what a terrible idea cancelling NASA's flagship mission would be, but the video route is open to anybody. So I took Callum's advice and got writing, and before long I was animating what you see here today.
I didn't want to focus on being informative with this piece; if people want to know more about all the amazing things the James Webb could do, including seeing almost all the way back to the Big Bang, there are plenty of places to do so. The point was to get them to want to know in the first place. Vision is aimed at the average pro-science citizen; someone who may not realize that decades of thrilling discovery are about to be yanked out from underneath them. It aims at inspiring an attitude of curiosity, at appealing to people's imaginations about the future. Hopefully those who enjoy it will do their own part towards saving it.
There are many ways to help. The day after Vision goes live (October 9th) is the last day for the petition I mentioned above. Any pro-science American should sign that, and then ask their American friends and family to do the same. (they are currently at only 4,858 out of 50,000 hoped for signatures, so please hop on over there right away) They can also alert their representatives in congress here. Anybody can retweet this video or links to the JWST website at: savejwst.com You can 'like' the Facebook page, follow the movement on Twitter, or read their blog. Callum Sutherland will also be assembling all the video contest submissions in a YouTube channel, so look for that, and spread it around. Politicians listen to viral movements, so get viral.
Thanks to Bob Mills from the band BIG IDEAS for generously donating use of their song 'Vanishing Point' for the piece, and to Sebastien Breton for lending his talents (and precious time off) for the sound design. Thanks also to Jeff Thistle and Greg Enright for some behind the scenes assistance. And of course, thanks to Callum for the heads up and the nudge.
There are multitudes of worries these days, many of which trouble the United States. There are also a number of different ways that they could be addressed. I'm not an American, but to those of my friends who are, I humbly suggest the following: don't give up on the future because of fleeting concerns in the present. Don't let the dream of seeing back to the beginning of time become lost to history. Make sure your representatives in government have the necessary vision to lead you into the future.
Save the James Webb!
I'd love for you to share this video, so please do so across all your social networks. I also understand that the length of this blog post is a little daunting, and could prevent people from getting to the video contained within, so please feel free to bypass this post and instead share a direct link to the YouTube video, found here. It's my hope that it will leave people curious enough to follow up themselves.
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About SaveJWST:
We are a group of students, amateur astronomers, and space enthusiasts whose mission is to Save the James Webb Space Telescope and rally supporters to contact their Congressional Representatives.
We must not allow the short-term economic woes of our generation squander our long-term aspirations in space science and exploration. Save the next generation's Hubble. Save the James Webb Space Telescope! Contact your Congressional Representative TODAY to voice your support.
