Bowie, Kantner guided us toward the stars

In January, the world of music lost several giants, known as much for their hit songwriting as their multidecade performance careers: David Bowie, Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane, and Glenn Frey of the Eagles.

When luminaries pass away within weeks of each other, articles often appear attempting to find commonalities — sometimes real, other times contrived. In the case of Bowie and Kantner there is indeed a deep cosmic connection. Both were avid readers who loved science fiction, popular science, and outer space themes. (Frey's "Hotel California" is a bit otherworldly, but in that case the connection is a stretch.)

Bowie's earliest hit, "Space Oddity," captured the mood of the time as the Apollo missions to the moon were launched. The title echoed that of the influential Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a masterpiece of special effects and speculation about the future. Bowie's Major Tom would return in several songs, including another hit "Ashes to Ashes," and imagery in one of his final songs, "Blackstar."

Ziggy Stardust, one of Bowie's many alter-egos, embodied his desire to transcend being human and reach toward the stars. He and his band at the time (early 1970s), the Spiders from Mars, would dress in outlandish stage costumes, as if they were aliens that had just landed on Earth. The theme of extraterrestrials pervaded many of his other works, including his starring role in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, and his recent play Lazarus. "Is there life on Mars?" Bowie once musically asked, earnestly hoping for signs that earthly civilization is not all there is. On one level he knew he was mortal but on another he longed for transcendence.

Kantner similarly had a strong passion for otherworldly things. When Jefferson Airplane disbanded in 1970, he penned the songs "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?" with David Crosby, and "Starship" with his former bandmates. Both songs appeared in a concept album Blows Against the Empire, whose entire second side envisions flight to space.

Kantner's ventures led to a new group, Jefferson Starship, which later became simply Starship, as personnel continued to change. (At the time of his death, the name of his own band had reverted to the original.) As he continued to write for the various bands, he maintained an avid love for speculative stories, and even wrote some science fiction himself.

Bowie and Kantner are far from the only rockers who mention space themes in their lyrics. "Across the Universe" by the Beatles, "Rocket Man," by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, "Drops of Jupiter," by Train, are among the many hits that come to mind. Singer-songwriter Janis Ian, who loves science fiction, has a short-story collection dedicated to her songs. Daft Punk, who dress like robots in their public performances, included audio from the Apollo 17 mission in their 2013 song "Contact."

Pop songs often try to capture the spirit of the age. Since the launch of Sputnik and the time of the Apollo mission, the public has hungered for journeys to the frontiers of space — to the moon and then beyond. Our appetite for exploring extraterrestrial worlds was hardly sated by Apollo and has only grown. Yet science proceeds at its own pace and cannot always keep up with public demand. Longed-for human missions to Mars, permanent bases on the moon, and so forth are still in the early planning stages.

NASA has been understandably cautious in pressing forward with human spaceflight beyond Earth's orbit. There has been a growing understanding of the dangers of deep space, including the threat of radiation. Thursday's 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster offers a somber reminder of the perils of space exploration — even relatively close to Earth. Certainly we will press forward, but we will continue to be careful to address the many hazards.

Meanwhile, through the space-themed songs of Bowie, Kantner, and others, we can continue to have Moonage Daydreams about Starship journeys to planets unknown. Speculative imagery does not require multibillion-dollar budgets, only a dose of clever inventiveness. Our imagination soars far beyond what our science can currently do, but that's an emblem of our astonishing creativity.

Sail on Bowie and Kantner, as your music continues to guide us toward the stars.

Paul Halpern is a professor of physics at the University of the Sciences and the author of Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics.   p.halper@usciences.edu