To Mars and beyond

02.03.2003

No doubt we'll be reading, hearing, and seeing lots of politicians, bureaucrats, and media personalities ask whether we should re-evaluate our space program. After all, seven people died in the Columbia disaster. Is the cost of space exploration too high? No.

Someone suggested that w/ the Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia disasters (not to mention the Soviet disasters) our odds are bad. Every space launch has a 50-to-1 chance of ending in failure. Still, I'd do it. In a heartbeat. I'd love to join the ranks of Denis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth.

Go into space? Hell, yeah! Why? Because I believe that Man is a heroic Being. That's why. Just knowing that there are - right now - three men orbiting our little blue sphere in the International Space Station comforts me. We are not defeated. We are still here. We will not step backwards. We (not robots) will land on Mars in my lifetime.

Here's an excerpt from a post by James Lileks:

NPR had an interview with one of those people who think we should not send people into space, but rely entirely on robots. As I pulled into the parking lot at the mall he casually asked "what can a man do on Mars that a robot cannot?"

PLANT A FUCKING FLAG ON THE PLANET, I shouted at the radio. Pardon my language. But. On a day when seven brave people died while fulfilling their brightest ambitions, this was the wrong day to suggest we all stay tethered to the dirt until the sun grows cold. Are we less than the men who left safe harbors and shouldered through cold oceans? After all, they sailed into the void; we can look up at the night sky and point at where we want to go. There: that bright white orb. We're going. There: that red coal burning on the horizon. We're going. And we're not sending smart toys on our behalf - we're sending human beings, and one of them will put his boot on the sand and bring the number of worlds we've visited to three. And when he plants the flag he will use flesh and sinew and blood and bone to drive it into the ground. His heartbeat will hammer in his ears; his mind will spin a kaleidoscopic medley of all the things he'd thought he'd think at this moment, and he'll grin: I had it wrong. I had no idea what it would truly be like.

Posted by Miguel at 03:23 PM

Comments

You embrace objectivcism very well, friend. You are quite superman.

Posted by: Gyorgy at February 4, 2003 05:33 AM

I agree. It seemed that the Challenger disaster shut down things at NASA for a long while. I hope that Columbia will not do the same. Its expensive in various ways but I've always thought it to be the pinnacle of our achievements- the day we stumble upon other life, or proof of it will be perhaps the most significant in human history.

Posted by: bil at February 5, 2003 12:28 PM