(From July of 2005)
Longstreet
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To Go Where No Man Has Gone Before…When?
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Why is the US still using those old space trucks… the Shuttles? Why haven’t we gone on to fulfill man’s dream of one day walking on the stars?
It is long past the time when men should have been colonizing the moon and Mars. Why have we not done it… yet?
NASA is in deep trouble. She is on the verge of becoming irrelevant. That which the government will not do… private enterprise WILL do.
NASA has lost it’s focus on the one thing man craves more than anything else. Exploration. Just too see what’s over the next hill. In the case of space… just to see what’s out there. (Maybe WHO is out there!) It is a natural yearning buried deep within mankind and it will not be denied. Even the Scriptures tell us “without a vision the people perish”. We might add that without a vision NASA will most certainly perish!
Mars beckons! She hangs there, in the heavens, all her mysteries yet to be unveiled for the eyes of man. Oh yes, we have landed robots on the surface of Mars. But, try as they might, a robot is still a machine and cannot see the beauty and the poetry in the lines of the horizon of a distant world now devoid of habitation. A robot cannot feel the exuberance, the overflowing of joy in the human heart, to tread where no other human has trod before him. The metal machine cannot sense that unique feeling of accomplishment, in the human mind, upon the recognition that we have done what not other has been able to do.
All this can be summed up in one word: “ADVENTURE!” Humans crave adventure. Especially Americans. It is inherent in Americans. Our forefathers settled this new land by seeking adventure. They forever sealed our fate as adventurers. The inflowing of immigrants in recent years has damped that adventurous spirit somewhat. For the most part, they do no bring with them a thirst for adventure. That is not a “put down”. They bring many other gifts with them, but that singular craving for adventure is almost uniquely an American thing.
Many Americans have grown tired of watching space shuttles blast off to nowhere… and return from nowhere. We need to go SOMEWHERE!
We have, for the most part, the technology. What we do not now have… we will invent as we go. Let’s be about it. Times a wasting!
There are those who believe the stars are man’s original home. That may be. It may explain our urge to make our way back to the heavens from whence we came. Maybe our yearning, as we look at the brilliance of the night sky, is simply our desire to “go home again”.
I know the writer has said: “You can never go home again.” He’s wrong. You can go home again. It may not appear as it did when you left it, but you most certainly can return to it.
I think it’s past time to visit the stars… and in doing so; maybe we WILL go home again. We MUST find out! We MUST!
Why is the US still using those old space trucks… the Shuttles? Why haven’t we gone on to fulfill man’s dream of one day walking on the stars?
It is long past the time when men should have been colonizing the moon and Mars. Why have we not done it… yet?
NASA is in deep trouble. She is on the verge of becoming irrelevant. That which the government will not do… private enterprise WILL do.
NASA has lost it’s focus on the one thing man craves more than anything else. Exploration. Just too see what’s over the next hill. In the case of space… just to see what’s out there. (Maybe WHO is out there!) It is a natural yearning buried deep within mankind and it will not be denied. Even the Scriptures tell us “without a vision the people perish”. We might add that without a vision NASA will most certainly perish!
Mars beckons! She hangs there, in the heavens, all her mysteries yet to be unveiled for the eyes of man. Oh yes, we have landed robots on the surface of Mars. But, try as they might, a robot is still a machine and cannot see the beauty and the poetry in the lines of the horizon of a distant world now devoid of habitation. A robot cannot feel the exuberance, the overflowing of joy in the human heart, to tread where no other human has trod before him. The metal machine cannot sense that unique feeling of accomplishment, in the human mind, upon the recognition that we have done what not other has been able to do.
All this can be summed up in one word: “ADVENTURE!” Humans crave adventure. Especially Americans. It is inherent in Americans. Our forefathers settled this new land by seeking adventure. They forever sealed our fate as adventurers. The inflowing of immigrants in recent years has damped that adventurous spirit somewhat. For the most part, they do no bring with them a thirst for adventure. That is not a “put down”. They bring many other gifts with them, but that singular craving for adventure is almost uniquely an American thing.
Many Americans have grown tired of watching space shuttles blast off to nowhere… and return from nowhere. We need to go SOMEWHERE!
We have, for the most part, the technology. What we do not now have… we will invent as we go. Let’s be about it. Times a wasting!
There are those who believe the stars are man’s original home. That may be. It may explain our urge to make our way back to the heavens from whence we came. Maybe our yearning, as we look at the brilliance of the night sky, is simply our desire to “go home again”.
I know the writer has said: “You can never go home again.” He’s wrong. You can go home again. It may not appear as it did when you left it, but you most certainly can return to it.
I think it’s past time to visit the stars… and in doing so; maybe we WILL go home again. We MUST find out! We MUST!
Longstreet
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