Ah, space. It has captured the hearts and dreams of many, and inspired nations to spend thousands on discovering everything first. We have been in a literal “space race” for at least 5 decades. The race to space has inspired many great films, books, cartoons (I heart The Jetsons!), etc. These works of fiction may, sadly, remain fiction for quite some time however. President Obama has reported that the pennies pinched for our space program will be $59 million less in 2013. Cutting our program back again to $17.7 Billion. Not that $59 million is such a huge number in comparison, nor will it seem to stop us from our plans of developing a new heavy-lift rocket and crew capsule, but I’m sure that amount of money is nothing to sneeze at - even for NASA.
In this Editorial, Human Spaceflights Prospects Dimming, there is talk of our national pride being boosted by manned space missions and a question of where we are headed. It also causes me to ask: how will the lack of money (aka interest) to invest in our space program affect our countries morale in the long run? No one can say for sure. However, national pride seems to be taking a downturn and any boost would be helpful. Though the actual audience this article seems to be pointed towards is the older generations who experienced the swell of pride when John Glenn successfully orbited the earth 3 times, I believe our generation remembers the urge we found at 10 years old to discover the unknown and fly weightless whilst slurping up droplets of juice as they float by our heads. The tone and main feeling of this article gives the general impression that maybe we are left uninspired by recent missions to mars, mercury, etc because they use robotic probes and do not inspire “the way a Marine pilot from Ohio did 50 years ago.” This leaves us hopeful that we will find a way to send other astronauts further and perhaps inspire our nation once again. I find myself in agreement. I personally never looked up to a particular astronaut but I do think that we are missing the quality role models for young children that we used to have. Role models that inspired good morals, good ethics, and hard work. Maybe if this next generation’s children looked up to someone more like John Glenn and less like Snooki, we’d have less problems in general. Maybe even common sense would make a come back! The article also mentions the different directions/decisions Presidents have made through the years focusing on Kennedy’s challenge to land on the moon. Also mentioning George Bush Sr. and Bush Jr, who both pressed for moon missions and trips to Mars, and Obama has discussed landing on a near-Earth asteroid.
I am unsure how necessary a focus on space is for right now, but it could be just be the moral boost our country needs to get us back on our feet so maybe we shouldn’t rule NASA out just yet. I’m just sayin.
