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PagBB We've landed n a Moonl By David Rude Staff Writer . On Friday, January 14, 2005, after a seven-year trip through the black of space, the European Space Agency 's Huygens probe successfully descended through the frozen atmo- sphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and landed on its surface. At a time when it's th~ norm to hitch a piggy-back ride to space for cost-effi- ciency, the Huygens probe was launched along with the Cassini voyager on October 15, 1997. While Cassini's mission was to fly to Saturn and study its rings, Huygens' mission was to study Titan's atmosphere and clouds and to characterize Titan's sur- face on a regional scale. Why Titan? One reason is that Titan is a large moon in our outer solar system that is remarkably like a planet in our inner solar system. Also, the conditions and gases in Titan's atmosphere are similar to those of our Pre-Cambrian Earth. Like Titan's atmosphere now, Earth's early atmosphere contained gases- that would be toxic to us. Nevertheless, it was in this period that life first appeared on Earth. Not only does this swing the door open to study how our An artist 's rendering of what the landing might look like (photo courtesy spacedaily.com) planet formed, but Titan is a goldmine of natural re- sources for our future gen- erations. "Space exploration gives us the opportunity to ex- plore space in ways that are obviously . impossible from Earth," said Tom Gougeon, Physics and Astronomy instructor at ACC, and planetarium tech- nician at Jesse Besser Mu- . seum. "From such explora- tions, we are learning about the origin, evolution and ul- timate fate of our uni verse. Studying Titan up close may give us some insight as to what the Earth may have been like in its infancy, since Titan is the only moon in the solar system with an appre- ciable atmosphere." While Huygens studies Ti- tan, Cassini will remain nearby for now, orbiting around Saturn and relaying data from Huygens. Cassini is the largest un- manned interplanetary ves- sel ever built by NASA. Un- able to launch directly to Saturn with the ineffidient propulsion systems the time, NASA sent C sini and Huygens on a "gr i ty assist trajectory" - the ves- sel flew to Venus, made two orbits, shot back to Earth in 1999, used Earth's orbit to sling it to Jupiter, and so on to Saturn. Cassini orbited Saturn twice while setting up for the piggy-backprobe's deploy- ment, and on Christmas day, 2004, Huygens launched from Cassini and traveled twenty days to Ti- tan. Huygens entered Titan's atmosphere at about 5: 15 a.m. EST Friday morning, and descended for two and one-half hours. After a heated entry, a sequence of parachutes slowed it down while the probe's scientific instruments were exposed to test the atmosphere. The probe landed with an im- pact that would be consid- ered orily a fender-be~der here on Earth. Upon im- pact, a spike from the probe's bottom stuck into Titan's ground for further sampling . Data from Huygens and Cassini was then transmitted across the void to Earth, routed with the help of.NASA, and col- lected at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. . "Not only is the informa- tion we learn from space travel important," said Gougeon, "but it is also im- portant because it pushes technology forward, ulti- mately making life on Earth more convenient." There were some gaps in the data, meaning that there were some technical glitches - there are so many com- plex systems operating on a mission like this, that errors are expected. However, the data that has been retrieved will be studied for ~enera- tions to come. "Space travel is never a waste of time or money," said Gougeon. "It more than pays for itself in the knowl- edge gained and the tech- nology developed. I think from a scientific standpoint, this is a Golden Age, as sci- entists are learning a wealth of information about the so- lar system and universe." · Fsbruary t, 2115 African village to welcome ACC students By David Rude Staff Writer The students of anACC class, Great Books on Leadership, are planning a trip-to Gambia this spring, to the village of Njawara, which will benefit the villagers of this severely im- poverished community. The students will be staying for two weeks in Gambia, helping with various needed errands, such as helping with irrigation or planting food crops. "The villagers of Njawara desperately need our help, and they will appreciate anything our Alpena students can offer. Likewise, our students need help in raising the money to travel and stay in Gambia," said Tom Ray, instructor of Great Books on Leadership. The class needs to raise ap- proximately $40,000, and the money must be generated be- fore May. There will be a donation can- ister in the A CC Library, and elsewhere in the community. "Please help in any way you can. Help make the trip a suc- cess. Your own personal re- ward will be knowing that you helped students of Alpena learn, and helped the villag- ers ofNjawara smile," said Ray. For more information, con- tact Tom Ray at rayt@alpenacc.edu. Who truly benefits in President us 's proposed Social Security reform?, By Erinn Kane Staff Writer President George Bush has truly taken consideration of Americas plunging social secu- rity system by being the first president ever to propose a possible alternative system. Since election, Bush has an- nounced his idea for our "sup- posed" retirement funding. The plan is to either keep our So- cial Security (abbreviated SS) plan existing presently, or to divert 2% from our already taxed 12.4% directly into a private investment account. The 2% taxed is predicted to gain substantial interest over the course of each workers life- time, so much interest that the retiree would not even need any other SS aid to support their retirement. On his SS speech PresidentBush quotes, "Owning your own.personal savings account allows you to pass on your savings to whom- ever you choose, and at the same time, manage your own account" So the real question is what is the problem with the SS sys- tem? Every worker sees ap- proximately three bucks auto- matically deducted from their paychecks weekly, depending on how much money made. That money is used in gov't spending, expanding the federal deficit. That SS tax is guaran- teed from the gov't to be paid back when we retire. The problem today is th~ gov't is in debt 413 billion dollars! What guarantee can any American trust from such a wealth-de- pleted gov't as ours? The an- swer is, wecan'ttrustourgov't with our money. It's predicted that only 13 years from now, the gov't will begin to disburse more in· SS than it gains, obvi- ously increasing our federal deficit. The "present social se- curity plan will only guarantee to pay retirees until 2042, then it will be bankrupt," says Bernie Wasow, an economist forCentury Foundation.Ameri- cans age 18-40 have a serious problem rousing, and without action, we can , all kiss our dream retirement vacations goodbye. The reality is, if we don't either update the SS system, or structure a completely different one, our generation as well as two ahead will pay $10.4 trillion according to Fox News Channel. Considering that our national debt is currently 413 billion, 10 .4 trillion is insupportable, and undoubtedly ridiculous to comprehend. This is precisely why a new SS retirement funding must transpire. When President Roosevelt conducted the SS system over six decades ago, the · onomy was reasonably con to as itis p,resently. Acco · g to the White House, for ev retiree half a century ago there were at sixteen workers supporting their SS benefits. Today, merely three workers support each retiree. The loss in workers is astonishing. Most agree the loss in workers supporting each retiree is on account of the drowning economy; yet, the baby-boomers are the ones to blame. With increasing numbers of baby-boomers retiring, and families having fewer children, t ere are· obviously fewer workers to support the each retiree. What is·thesolution?Thepayrolltax is already at 12.4% ! If we are to keep the current system instead of refonn,~ order for us to retire, the payroll tax will be raised to 18% says the White House. Another option is to elevate the retirement age from the already extended sixty-seven to sixty-nine, allowing people to receive retirement funding five years before they are expected to die! Obviously, these answers, if executed, will merely delay the inevitable problem of SS for a decade or two, but what will the government do then? With the depressing voter tumoutin this electiqn, itis quite obvious that most Americans do not worry nor care for these future enigmas of SS. The generation that will be affected worse is the group whom produced the least voter turnout. Tim Kue~ein, a professorofAmerican politics at ACC, agrees that the "Government has a major crisis; this becomes an issue of whether people want to take care of themselves; not everyone can take care of themselves." Surprisingly, the proposed plan has failed to energize most politicians. Most democrats especially argue that this plan will be costly and have little effect on the pending SS problem. In all actuality though, most democrats disprove of this plan because the government would lose 2% of the total SS money they depend on for federal disbursements. With this plan, 10% of our SS money will stay in the current system while 2% is diverted into private investment accounts that gain mad interest. "Opponents maintain private investment accounts would alter the intent of Social Security, possibly harm beneficiaries, and widen federal budget deficits," writes Pamela Gaynor of the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette. Truthfully, the federal deficit is already outrageously out of control, and the gov't is still spending our SS money, hence, guaranteeing our SS dependent retirees that their retirement funding will be provided with money the gov't cannot afford. So why is it such a difficult decision? If the present system is a failure for our generation, modification should occur. According to anew poll on Fox News Opinion· Dyna~cs, 60% Americans supported giving people the choice to privately invest 2% ?f their SS tax. Regardless of partisan differences, 53% Democrats and 71 % Republicans like the new personal investment option, which makes sense; half of Congress currently has private investment accounts for their retirement, so why wouldn't more than half Americas politicians preferthe plan? "Young workers who elect personal accounts can expect to receive far higher rate of return on their money than the current system could ever afford to pay them," said vice president Dick Cheney at Catholic University America. Are you not convinced yet? Do you still believe that our countries present SS system is workable? The baby- boom generation is ending, meaning more people are · retiring than working. The present SS system is eventually going to fail, "it makes sense·to try and get a better rate of return on our money if we expect there to be a social security fund," says Bush. Since many people in our generation plan to be wealthy fifty years from now, I have to say, President Bush, I could not agree any more on this one. T