Space Exploration
Uploaded by CollegeKid2002 on Oct 25, 2001
"Approaching the end of Apollo, my frustration often surfaced. No one in America seemed to care that we were giving up, surrendering the future of the next generation of young people with stars in their eyes.... How I wished John F. Kennedy were still alive, challenging us to dare and to dream. I feel the same way today; the boldness and scope of his vision is not to be found today in our space program and in our nation.... Entering the twenty-first century, we have an unimaginable array of technology and a generation of young Americans schooled in these technologies. With our powerful economy, we can do anything we set our mind to do. Yet we stand with our feet firmly planted on the ground when we could be exploring the universe. Three decades ago... Americans placed six flags on the Moon. Today we no longer try for new and bold space achievements; instead we celebrate the anniversaries of the past.... Our work is unfinished" - Gene Kranz, Failure Is Not An Option
There's a certain something about science which is part of its appeal to me and to many others. Call it a willingness to dream, if you will. Sometimes a dream may be amusing, as with the molecular creations (dodecahedrane, cubane, superphane, basketane, and of course buckminsterfullerene) described in Designing the Molecular World by Philip Ball. Sometimes a dream may be visionary and bold, as with the dream to finally understand the physics that underlies our world. There's definitely something interesting about the fact that the fundamental particles of the universe can be drawn in a chart on a T-shirt, or that the equations behind classical electromagnetism can be scribbled on a scrap of paper. For some 400 years, scientists have dared to dream that they can understand and explore the universe, ever since Galileo peered into the night skies with a simple telescope.
I read a large amount of books and magazines; in addition to the science books that fill my bookshelf, I subscribe to Scientific American and Discover and several other scientific magazines. They all are, in some way, connected with the dreams of science, whether it be the dreams of the past (scientific history) or dreams about the future of science. How excited I was when I saw the March 2000 issue of Scientific American, which at the top had the words "Special Report: Sending Humans to...