Back to the moon, back to our destiny

Posted on: March 18, 2008
5 comments so far (is that a lot?)

As you watch Endeavour float above the earth at a staggering 17,500 MPH I think it’s important to remember who we all are and where we came from. We, as humans, are explorers. We are curious. We are adventurous. We are daring and sometimes foolish. We are capable of uniting the planet over magnificent accomplishments and warring over petty words.

In 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon. In 1972 Apollo 17 was the last craft to take any humanoid to our neighbor in the stars. No one has been back since. No one has set foot on anything other than the Earth and our moon.

Did we lose our curiosity? Did we get caught up over petty words and wars so much that we forgot who we were? Who we are?

While NASA aims to put humans again on the moon as well as Mars many question the costs both financially and from a risk standpoint. Many wonder why we should even explore a planet that we can not inhabit, that many see as a fools errand. Even back in 1969 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, many people asked much the same question.

I started this site to educate people on the value of space travel. To get people excited about putting humans on the moon again. Putting humans on Mars. We are explorers, we belong out there in regions we have never seen before. The rain forests, the oceans and of course the stars. This will come at a heavy price, but the cost of not exploring, not advancing is far greater than that of forging forward.

Space flight has brought us amazing advancements in the quality of living for many across the world and it stands to continue to do the same. Poverty, global warming, recycling and feeding the planet are just a few areas that space travel stand to help us. Once we get over the petty quibbles and problems, take off the blinders we all wear, I think it will become clear that we belong out there, amongst the stars.

Starting directly after STS-123 SpaceVidcast.com will begin a weekly live videocast exclusively on Ustream.tv. The sole purpose of this videocast is to get all of planet Earth excited about space flight and living amongst the stars. Help us spread the word. Help us advance the human race. I hope we’ll see you there.

  1. Adam says:

    Great post – I couldn’t agree more. If people watch the video they’ll hear the old guy referencing Columbus even though he didn’t say his name. That’s exactly what I’ve always thought – we need to take the risk to explore the unknown and hopefully dumb luck will help us prevail. If we as humans don’t continue to explore other places, or worlds I feel we might hit a giant brick wall in the realm of technological advancement. Sure our processing power is doubling over and over again a extraordinary rate, but if we don’t put that power to use what good will it do?

    At this point we’ve explored the vast majority of our world, save for the deepest parts of the ocean and some remote parts of the polls. While we should keep exploring our world we need to take off now and go somewhere else.

    It does suck that we haven’t been to the moon since 1972, but at least we’ve learned a lot about long term space missions through Mir, the Shuttle program and the ISS. These last 30 years of research, even with a couple of tragedy’s have been incredibly positive.

    Now, it’s going to be a long 6 years until we can see Orion take off, but man I can’t wait for that to happen!

    • Chris Astro says:

      I agree with you!
      As NASA always say,”Failure is not a option”
      Humans can encounter failures along the way but we can also learn from those failures.
      I say we fund more from NASA.Increase its budget by more than $10 Billion rather than its current $1.2 Billion.
      I want to be a Astronaut someday..go to the Moon,Mars and beyond.!
      I am 17 years old and I learned a lot about NASA,Space Program of other countries,Astronomy and etc…
      SO LETS GO BACK TO THE MOON..BUILD A BASE THERE..GO TO MARS AND BEYOND..

  2. Jeff Goldstein says:

    Ben, you’re preaching to the choir. We have to get kids excited – emotional – about science, and they need to feel like they can be part of the adventure. I worked at the National Air and Space Museum for 8 years, walking by Columbia, and the Spirit of St. Louis, and the Wright Flyer each morning. I know what we are capable of achieving. I know that the 100,000 that built Apollo were children once that dared to dream. I know that history is not ancient. It is alive and well, and one can jump in at an time and take the human race where we’ve never been.

    Education is the answer. As you, I’ve decided to dedicate a serious chunk of time to making a difference. My humble approach – Blog on the Universe – which launched May 19, 2009.

    Take a look at http://blogontheuniverse.org
    Read about this Blog, and look at the resource pages on The Nature of Our Existence, the National Air and Space Museum, and pages on the Crisis in Science and Technology Education.

    Reciprocal links maybe? See my Friends of the Blog page.

    Best wishes for success to both of us,

    Jeff Goldstein, Center Director
    National Center for Earth and SPace Science Education

  3. Doug says:

    I am hoping you can provide me with some figures as to traffic on your site. I'm compiling “interest statictics” on space…specifically looking for numbers on how many people actually follow space on a regular bases.
    Thanks in advance,
    Doug

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