That is Friendship 7, Mercury Project. The Mercury Program is 50 years old. Then we went to Gemini, then to Apollo. Then we moved on to the Shuttle Program. Fifty years of shootng into space, even exploring the Moon a wee bit.
We, as in Humanity, has done other space projects, Viking Missions to Mars is a fave of mine. Heck we even built a couple space stations. As a group, we have gotten our feet wet. But its been fifty years of just getting our feet wet. Now? Well it looks like we are stalled.
We have had spectacular success and some stunning failures. No doubt about that. I reckon thats to be expected when exploring. There are wonders to uplift the soul, disasters to shrivel the spirit. I don't think anyone has ever thought it would be easy, or safe.
I have said it before here, but it bears repeating. I am fascinated with space travel, ever since my earliest memeories of the Moon Landing. I am even more enamored with space today. I am dismayed with the current path, or more to the point, lack of direction, of humanities exploration of space. We are stalled.
We have lost our will, our strength of spirit. It is my opinion(note I am rarely so opinionated here) that we have lost our way. Our desire is sapped, gone. For that reason, I am dismayed. I feel at a lost.
It hit home today. I am a big fan of Star Trek and was watching Enterprise and the episode 'First Flight' was on. It is an excellent example of the spirit of exploration, of the desire to travel into space. All the problems they encountered were a perfect metaphor for all the problems we face today.
There is too much of the attitude 'we are not ready'. And for that, I cry bullshit(I dont cuss in my posts, but this seems to be apropos) I am not unaware of the problems of our society, or the rest of the world. Not at all. I do not believe space exploration is a cure all for the problems we face. I do believe the idea, the attitude, the desire to achieve a dream, is in fact what we need.
Apparently, we have lost that in all facets of life. So it seems to me at least. For that, I am sorry to say, is evident. There is a decided lack of desire to do anything more than the bare mininum. And even then, we argue mindlessly about trivial concerns. Sad to say it, but the space program is an example of that, and that, my fellow wanderers, is a shame.
My solution is to try it. Give it a go. Push outward to bring everyone together. A shared goal, a shared dream. It worked before, it can again. The dream is not dead, far from it. Sleepy, on the back burner so to speak, but not dead.
I still dream of the stars. I still want to see what is over the next hill, the other side of the water, even the other side of the clouds. I think that is in all of us to a certain degree. We just need to spark that.
We have to have faith.
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