AD ASTER ASPIREMUS!

A few days ago, President Obama announced the  cancellation of plans for the US to send men back to the Moon by 2020; thus effectively eviscerating our manned space program for the foreseeable future. While I have stood by Mr. Obama on many issues even when my views diverged from his, because what we were getting was better than what we had, this is not one of those times. Moreover, as the Declaration of Independence reminds us, whenever such differences occur, “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that [I] should declare the causes which impel [me] to the separation.”

I was not in agreement with the manner of our return to the moon. It seemed to be no more than another expensive stunt, returning us to the days of space “capsules” rather than advancing to real spacecraft. Still, it was to be a new beginning, and not an end in itself. Now, we are placing both our nation and the human race in greater jeopardy from any major catastrophe that comes along. Moreover, lest anyone think this too remote a possibility to be concerned over, I would advise them to begin their debate with the nearest T-Rex.

There have been more “spinoffs” of our manned space program that have elevated, ennobled, and benefitted mankind than any other human endeavor but war. Everything from cardiac  pacemakers, intensive care units and a myriad of medications to personal computers and the Internet owe their existence to our manned space program, yet the one percent of our budget that NASA has been allowed for it is considered a waste by many; a tragic miscalculation.

Let’s be clear, though, about the reason we have a space program. People climb into imperfect machines and lift tenuously into space just as others climbed into imperfect machines and lifted into the air at the beginning of the last century, and others before them climbed into imperfect machines and sailed across uncharted oceans labeled, “Here be Dragons,” by mapmakers, because we have to. Curiosity, the urge to discover and the drive to explore, is the difference between humanity and all lower animals. It is not the result of our humanity, it defines it. We are the animal that climbs over the crest of the next hill to see what is there, even if danger lies ahead. We climb that hill, even when those who went before us never returned. We climb that hill because to do anything else is to deny our very nature, and to be  less than we are – less than human.

 

We, or others, will continue our journey into space. There will be a flag fluttering in the Martian breeze now, or in a hundred years. Will it be American, Russian, Chinese, or UN? Who knows? There will be a flag there, however, and it will be Human – Terran. We cannot deny our nature, and it is our nature to dream. We cannot deny our destiny, and it is our destiny to explore. We cannot deny our future, and it is our future to cross the vast expanses of space, and expand our horizons to other planets in the Solar System, and then to the stars.

 

I am saddened by President Obama’s decision to abandon our manned space program, but I am proud to look up as we climb that ladder to the stars. I wish I were among those whose destiny it is to explore, but even if I am not, I am human, and so a part of the adventure.