Space...The Final FrontierLast night we watched
When We Left the Earth: The NASA Missions , a documentary on the first flights into space (The Science Channel).
There were casualties in the early stages of space exploration. The United States
first sent a monkey that died on its return when its parachute didn't open. Laika,
the first animal to actually be sent into orbit, was a stray dog. Laika died in orbit due to stress and overheating. How would you like those odds? The people who pick you off the streets wants you for an experiment, not as a pet.
The Russians also beat the Americans by sending
the first man into orbit. While, Alan Shepherd was impatiently waiting for NASA to finish tests to see if he'd be able to survive a flight into space and awaiting other delays, the Russians sent their guy up. The funny thing is their astronaut underwent rigorous tests, too; either willing to take more risks or just more advanced in their technology than the Americans.
On the day that NASA had scheduled their trip to space, NASA's flight control kept delaying the flight until finally Shephard made the executive decision to
just do it!
I'm sad to see that the American cowboy mentality is fading away.
Other countries, including India and China, are interested in space exploration and making steps to do spacewalks, design new rockets, and put satellites into orbit. Now we have wars, monetary problems, and other "more important" concerns in America. Many resources are necessary to pursue space exploration; resources that we don't have and/or not willing to allot to a, let's say, "trivial" pursuit?
What would further space exploration achieve? Would it help us to fight our wars, cure cancer, or stop global warming? Maybe, maybe not. But perhaps it would help to unify the world. Healthy competition made space exploration possible in the first place. It would be nice to have a commonality with the countries of the world besides fighting terrorism, poverty, hunger, or global warming--you know, problems.
