The space program owes as much to popular culture as it does to science. HG Wells influenced early space travelers as Albert Einstein. And the internet was created first in the minds of wild-eyed geniuses like William Gibson and Phillip K Dick decades before it was made true by their fans who said "What a cool idea, let's do it!"This is why all the real scientists are mad... at least a little.
But what happened to the kids who didn't read those guys? What about the kids that idolized Evel Kneival? What happens when the kids who lived for their Hotwheels and Matchbox cars and harkened to the horn of General Lee grow up? What marvels will they introduce to the world? What ideas will the Dukes of Hazzard inspire?
Nascar? Monster Truck Rallies? The next step in the evolution of the Space Program?
Wait... Say that last one again.
Recent innovations in the Hotwheels approach to space travel has given us the strange and magnificent Space Ramp! Some mad scientists who didn't allow themselves to be distracted by the possibilities inherent in the giant marauding robots because they'd watched Bo & Luke Duke jumping over Miller's Creek in the General Lee one too many times said "What if we built a way that you could jump into Low Earth Orbit!?"
Then they set out to do it. And if that doesn't scare you... this will. They succeeded. Well in theory anyway. if nothing else a whole bunch of them banded together and went looking for a way to build a ramp that they can use to jump into space.
Brilliant. Mad as a box of hatters, but that's the way I like 'em... crazy mad brilliant. I - for one - would love to see it. Besides, how cool would that be? Daisy Duke in space! (insert wolf-whistle here)
"Just some good ol' boys,
never meanin' no harm
beats all you never saw
been in trouble with the law (of gravity)
since they day they was borne..."
-Waylon Jennings
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