And now.. for something completely different

[hkellick]

I do want to talk about the near breakup.. but later.. after it doesn't feel so close and so.. difficult.

So.. something completely different.

I went off to D.C. Saturday, to just spend some quality time by myself, something I probably haven't done an awful lot of, lately, for one reason or another. I vow, from this point forward, to find SOME way to spend some truly quality alone time, instead of me just vegging in front of the computer (which CAN be neat, but... isn't really quality, I don't think.): movies, concerts, museums... stuff like that.
It doesn't have to be every week, but... at least twice a month, I think.
I don't think I realized how much I missed it until there I was and.. I was enjoying myself and.. yeah.

ANYWAYS...
So I was in D.C. yesterday, off at the air and space museum. And, I somehow managed to fall in line with a tour. The tour was going through, at least the portion I caught, the space program.. from Apollo 11 (I caught them around the rocket), then the moon lander, and then the space shuttle.
Also, I caught a really crappy, but sorta thought-provoking five minute play about the Wright Brothers.

And it made me wonder..
100 years ago, two brothers from Ohio proved to the world that man COULD fly. Sustained, controllable flight.
35 years ago, two men "touched the face of god" by taking a scientific excursion to and onto the moon.

What's next? What unexplored fronteir do we go towards next? Mars?

I guess I feel that's what our generation is missing. You can certainly "blame" it on JFK, but our parents generation wanted very much to explore, to push back the unexplored fronteirs.

To our credit, my generation, our generation, did push back the boundaries of space, making instant communication between different ends of the planet not just some daydream, but a reality. I suppose that we CREATED a new reality to explore, the world wide web, the internet, the information superhighway.

But... the Internet doesn't inspire DREAMS the way that flying.. or going to the moon does.

What little kid dreams of being a cybernaut?

It's always been disappointing to me to know that NASA has all but given up on any programs to get us past the confines of the international space station. We've even decided to give in on Hubble. I love Hubble. Hubble has given us the chance to truly see the awesomeness of space. And yet.. we've decided to give that up, as much, as Kristen mentioned, because of the cost of fixing it, as because of Columbia and now NASA requires that all space shuttles be able to dock with the space station.. just in case.

I think America needs to dream again. Give us something else to concentrate on besides war and hate and terrorism.

Mars or Bust. Mars by 2050.

Comments

[lite.livejournal.com]

I would tend to agree, except that there's a cynical part of me that is afraid that any telescope we put up would have.. issues as well. Hopefully not the same issues as hubble, but issues.

Also, I'm serious that I think we should head to Mars. We've done the moon. I'm sure there's plenty to learn on the Moon still, but Mars is the next fronteir. We COULD DO Mars if we pooled our resources and knowledge together. Just like we could go to the Moon.

[alierak.livejournal.com]

From the article:

"Our third goal," Bush said, "is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond." He proposed sending robotic probes to the lunar surface by 2008, with a human mission as early as 2015, "with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods of time."

Bush said lunar exploration could lead to new technologies or the harvesting of raw materials that might be turned into rocket fuel or breathable air.

"With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon," he said, "we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond."

So yeah, that sounds pretty much like Mars by 2050 to me. Not that, if it actually happens, it will be any of Bush's doing...