All These Worlds
The frontier is calling - and mankind shall answer.
In 1997 the Cassini-Huygens mission began as all exploratory space missions do, on a column of fire in a capsule inching toward escape velocity and freedom from the oppressive arms of humanity's homeworld. Now, years later, a robotic probe returns images from a new land, inhospitable and cold - perhaps no different from the lifeless expanse found nearer to us on Mars only a year or so ago by very similar means.
For centuries the constant question of where to go from here has been answered with exploratory feats like this. From prehistoric journeys across land bridges that once connected continents, to perilous sea voyages that brought adventurers to foreign lands, to rockets that brought men, television cameras and golf to the moon, robotic explorers are now bringing telepresence and microphones to the expanse of celestial bodies we once thought we could never see in our lifetimes - and the answer is louder now than ever before: "Go there. Go now."
Earth has been wracked with cataclysmic violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the space of hours. No man was to blame. No warning was given, and no innocents were spared. A subduction zone earthquake off the coast of Sumatra has, as it has painfully done before in 1997 and 1883, destroyed the coastlines of all land masses within thousands of miles of its epicenter, and the world now mourns a tragedy that will continue to repeat itself -as it has- throughout history. This is tectonics; this is the nature of Earth.
Elsewhere, rocks cross the path of our homeworld every day, and scientists are ever on the watch for one that is just too large not to be ignored. Perhaps large enough to survive reentry into our atmosphere and impact the ground, causing calamity unheard of in the history of our species. Like tsunamis, there would be no mercy behind this threat and, until the modern day, no escape. This is the nature of our solar system.
In the short history of manned space flight and exploration, the United States of America has seen the loss of life on a heroic scale time and time again. The loss of dozens of test pilots on missions to breach every known barrier of speed and distance did not stop mankind from mastering the art of flight. The loss on the ground of five Apollo project personnel before the first moon shot did not stop the conquest of our moon in the name of science and progress. The loss of seven astronauts in each of two orbital missions during the Space Shuttle Program will not stop the quest for safe travel beyond the final barrier - that of our atmosphere and into the welcome arms of freefall and beyond.
The loss of countless thousands in the closing days of 2004 cannot adequately underscore the need for our quest to find new lands and therefore an escape from terrestrial tyranny both geological and political. The need has always been there, and it has always been this great. Huygens has found land. This land flows with the fuel of progress. The means are before us.
"Go there. Go now." This is the nature of man.
[for Apollo: Roger Chaffee, Ed White, Gus Grissom, Elliott See and Charlie Bassett]
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In 1997 the Cassini-Huygens mission began as all exploratory space missions do, on a column of fire in a capsule inching toward escape velocity and freedom from the oppressive arms of humanity's homeworld. Now, years later, a robotic probe returns images from a new land, inhospitable and cold - perhaps no different from the lifeless expanse found nearer to us on Mars only a year or so ago by very similar means.
For centuries the constant question of where to go from here has been answered with exploratory feats like this. From prehistoric journeys across land bridges that once connected continents, to perilous sea voyages that brought adventurers to foreign lands, to rockets that brought men, television cameras and golf to the moon, robotic explorers are now bringing telepresence and microphones to the expanse of celestial bodies we once thought we could never see in our lifetimes - and the answer is louder now than ever before: "Go there. Go now."
Earth has been wracked with cataclysmic violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the space of hours. No man was to blame. No warning was given, and no innocents were spared. A subduction zone earthquake off the coast of Sumatra has, as it has painfully done before in 1997 and 1883, destroyed the coastlines of all land masses within thousands of miles of its epicenter, and the world now mourns a tragedy that will continue to repeat itself -as it has- throughout history. This is tectonics; this is the nature of Earth.
Elsewhere, rocks cross the path of our homeworld every day, and scientists are ever on the watch for one that is just too large not to be ignored. Perhaps large enough to survive reentry into our atmosphere and impact the ground, causing calamity unheard of in the history of our species. Like tsunamis, there would be no mercy behind this threat and, until the modern day, no escape. This is the nature of our solar system.
In the short history of manned space flight and exploration, the United States of America has seen the loss of life on a heroic scale time and time again. The loss of dozens of test pilots on missions to breach every known barrier of speed and distance did not stop mankind from mastering the art of flight. The loss on the ground of five Apollo project personnel before the first moon shot did not stop the conquest of our moon in the name of science and progress. The loss of seven astronauts in each of two orbital missions during the Space Shuttle Program will not stop the quest for safe travel beyond the final barrier - that of our atmosphere and into the welcome arms of freefall and beyond.
The loss of countless thousands in the closing days of 2004 cannot adequately underscore the need for our quest to find new lands and therefore an escape from terrestrial tyranny both geological and political. The need has always been there, and it has always been this great. Huygens has found land. This land flows with the fuel of progress. The means are before us.
"Go there. Go now." This is the nature of man.
[for Apollo: Roger Chaffee, Ed White, Gus Grissom, Elliott See and Charlie Bassett]
Books by Me | Newsletter | Discussion Group
