A Step Backwards for Mankind

Today I am grieving for the passing of something I have been close to all of my life. I watched it grow as I grew, my heart swelled in pride with each success and ached for each set-back. It was a part of my generation, a moment in history never to be matched again. It is so inconceivable that it is happening, but the chapter is unfolding.

My husband was up long before dawn, showering and dressing for work and more somber than usual. He has gone to join his fellow workmates to watch the last gasps of an incredible era. There will be celebration for the safe return of the astronauts, another mission that took so many thousand man hours to produce ending in success. There will also be tears and heavy hearts, and a sense of loss that will reverberate through their lives. I'm glad my father is not here to witness the moment, it would be as though all the hard work and dedication that he and his fellow workers dedicated to the mission has been dismissed as unimportant and unworthy of notice.

In these times of personal panic for individual prosperity, the big picture has faded until it is entirely out of focus and brushed aside. Unfortunately, there will be consequences as time unfolds, unfortunate consequences for this great country. I love this nation and am afraid for its future, for its long tem prosperity.

Most people look at the success of the nation in terms of the economy, of joblessness, of high numbers on the Dow Jones Industrial. Normally they see people spending money, driving fancy new cars, wearing fashionable clothes, building big luxurious homes and indulging themselves in vacations and entertainment and see it as a good thing for our country. When they see corporations paying high dividends and capital gains they feel confident and certain that all is well. Admitedly, those are good signs, but it is not enough.

There are investments in our nation that cannot be easily measured. They are quiet and move behind the scenes touching our lives in ways we'd never imagine. There are things that we take for granted in our everyday lives today that are derived from that hidden investment. You have to look close at some things and dig below the surface to find its true value. There are good minds working hard in areas that don't interest the majority, and they are not seeking notoriety for their work; but the things they conceive have changed our world since mid century in ways that are really amazing. Spin-offs on their research has produced huge industries. Out of need to solve a problem that was a new uncharted challenge for man, doors opened that catapulted us into another era. Certain sciences were prodded until progress in areas were racing forward years ahead of normal development. It was an exciting era for those who were directly involved and at times for the rest of the world.

Today, the space shuttle settles to earth for the last time. The proud birds will never fly again. They are old, tired and have served the program well. America is entering a new era, we will no longer be the proud leaders in space; we are at the mercy of our old competitor for lifts out of our atmosphere. America's astronauts will be hitchhikers to the space station that they worked so hard to install out in that dark, cold inhospitable environment above our world.

It is the nature of man to explore the unknown spaces around him and it allowed the earth to be populated on all the continents, even Antarctica. In that exploration, the world literally unfolded before us revealing its treasures, beauty, incredible variety and complexity. Once the world was thought of as a small flat place in which man thought he had to limit his travel or fall off the edge into the horror of the unknown. The sea was a mystery, man really only understood the surface and a shallow depth below. Today the vast seas are still a place for exploration, and technology is making that possible.

Now the world has taken on the shape of a globe and man has no fear of falling from its surface. While some turned to the seas to discover the unknown, others looked to the heavens. Knowledge of the universe has developed exponentially from the centuries before. How incredible, how privileged to live in a generation that has begun to look beyond our fragile atmosphere and to see ourselves as part of a larger neighborhood that consists of planets, stars, galaxies and other matter. We now see ourselves as a minute speck in a universe that defies the capacity of the majority of minds to even begin to grasp.

Some feel these studies and explorations are a blasphemy to their religious concepts and the two shall ne'er meet. I actually feel a closer relationship to my God and a wonderment at the miracles that exist in nature and the organization of all that exists. My father once expressed his thoughts and it actually echoed my feelings and made me feel more comfortable with this life. He said that the complex process of creating a child in itself is quite a miracle and that to even live for a moment is a blessing and an honor. To be able to live a lifetime on this planet is a phenomenon in the scheme of the universe. Anything that might come after that is just icing on the cake. The possibility of life existing at all has very negative odds. We like to think that there is more life out there somewhere, but, then again we might be it, as far as complex organisms ever got.

I am watching as the space shuttle Atlantis approaches its final landing. It is now being piloted by human hands and the twin sonic booms have signaled that the craft is at a subsonic speed. The complex machine is getting closer and will touch down in one minute and be transformed from a useful machine to a historical relic. We can hear it; we can see it racing down the strip; the nose gear is down and the chute is deployed. You can hear it slowing and after thirty hard working years, the space shuttle program has ground to a halt.

Now we wait, the government that is in office is not particularly interested in our space endeavor. There is an ignorance and a chosen blindness to its importance. They try to convince us that private industry will take the reins and continue the mission. Without the strength of the government behind it, private industry will not expend the sums that will be required to fund pure exploration. Unmanned space travel is going to be an important part of our exploration, but involving the human factor allows all of us to experience the wonders through their eyes and to inspire our lives.

The longer we wait, the harder it will be to continue. NASA is waiting for direction. Incredible capabilities for scientific development are stagnated and unproductive. Brilliant, imaginative minds have been assembled and the combination is prime for great things. To dissolve these teams would be a tragedy for our nation.  Already, the landing of Atlantis has signalled unemployment for thousands of dedicated employees.

While America pretends that this program is unimportant, nations like China and India are pouring money and effort into their programs. China is moving rapidly and has the benefit of our technology as a huge boost to their program. Look at history; always, the nation that controls the newest forms of transportation and ability for warfare is the most powerful on the earth. Once, ships were the standard and those who had large, well developed and ever evolving fleets had the strongest economies and the most influence over the world. Next came aircraft and the nation with the best air force and the most advanced machines was the top of the heap. Right on their tail came missiles that can deliver powerful forms of destruction from great distances. Right now, that is us, but look over your shoulder because a new efforts to function in outer space is changing the balance of power. Eventually those who control the space around this world will have the reins.

New economies are developing rapidly across the sea and they are very aware of this coming phenomenon. They have the ability to focus in this area and dedicate manpower and materials to the accomplishment of success. Their governments will give importance to this program.  There will be a necessity to develop more technology and that technology will strengthen their nations in many ways one would not expect.

We need to wake up and realize that technology is a huge influence on an economy. Fortunes have been made on the technology that flowed out of our space industry. The development of the computer was given a huge kick forward. The need to manage vast amounts of information related to space travel had to be conquered or none of this would have happened. We take our laptops for granted today, but it would have taken a huge roomful of machines to handle the programming needed to make it run the material we think is normal.

The applications of materials developed to accommodate the needs in the hostile environment of outer space is mind boggling and spread into all areas of our life. Lives have been saved and made more tolerable because of adaptations for medicine. Lives have been saved because of the network of satellites that keeps watch over this earth and has advanced our ability to predict weather and give warning to those in danger. Because of the nature of NASA as a government entity, it does not advertise itself like private industry does, there is no marketing to boost the profit line.  Most of the general public lives in ignorance of the benefits reflected in their lives from the many advances ceated from the space program.

I have a strange feeling that being able to understand and maneuver in space could someday mean the difference in our existence or our extinction. What a shame to cease to exist because a piece of space debris crashed into our surface wreaking havoc over the planet for a hundred thousand years. Impacts from asteroids have left their scars over the surface of our earth.  Some had cataclysmic result on the environment.  I want our species to survive and continue to evolve and learn and interract. We need to watch our heavens and prepare ourselves for that day. The ability to intervene is within our grasp, we mustn't become complacent.

Life will go on, people around the city are beginning to stir and start their day. The stock market will buy and sell as usual, kids will continue to enjoy their summer break, doctors will perform surgery and the business of courting and loving will continue in the back seats of cars parked on lover's lane. For many, nothing has changed, but my life has and somehow I feel my country is now more vulnerable.

I pray there are still men and women in our government and in positions of influence who have an inkling of how close to the edge of the precipice our nation is getting. A nation that does not lead in technology and science will fall in position. I'm not ready for this country to take a back seat to another because we are damn fools. Stand outside tonight and stare into the heavens, that is our frontier. Who knows what could be discovered that would be of benefit to us, if we don't seek, we'll never know.