Dreams of Constellation

"Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit. "
-Frank Borman, Commander of Apollo 8, first flight around the moon.


I have been very interested in reading reports about the recent Discovery Shuttle mission to the International Space Station and the antennae problems that they are experiencing. I am really sad that this will be among the last space shuttle missions and that it looks like American Astronauts may well be hitching rides to space on spacecraft from foreign countries in the near future.

Now I'm not a terribly political person, but one thing that I oppose President Obama on is shutting down the Constellation Program. If you aren't familiar with it, that is NASA's long range program for space exploration and colonization. Ultimately it will be up to Congress, but the President's proposed budget includes no funding for the project. If you want to know more about Constellation, you can read about it on trusty wikipedia, which has what I consider a good summary.

I find that my view on this subject is in what seems to be a fairly small minority. People often say to me when I mention my support and interest in space exploration that it is a terrible waste of money, and typically they tsk-tsk-tsk and shake their heads about the money spent funding NASA. In attempting to follow my ideas from the post below, I generally try to be sympathetic to those views and agree that it might not be the absolute best way to spend money. Yet my point of view remains unchanged.

Why, you ask? (If anyone is still reading...I am ranting here, I know.) A couple of reasons. The lesser reason is because I look at the federal budget and see the absolutely obscene amounts of money the government is spending on the big three, Social Security, Medicaid/Medicare, and Defense, and I see that the NASA budget is a drop in the fiscal bucket. Sure, it sounds like a lot when we talk about it as millions and billions, but relative to expenditures, it is a small fraction of what our leaders are spending. Poorly, I might add, but that's another post.

The greater reason is because I agree with Frank Borman. The adventure, the possibilities, the chance to learn and discover wonders previously unknown that is embodied by Constellation (or a similar, substituted program, if need be) is absolutely thrilling to me. As I consider the possibilities of what might be, I find myself awed at the mere contemplation of the unknown away from our home planet. I have often wondered what it must have been like to be alive in 1969 listening to Armstrong become the first person to walk on a surface other than earth....breathtaking. Words fail me to describe how much I would like to see the next step, be it moon colonization or a manned mission to Mars.

Sadly, it looks like it won't be an American making that next step for mankind.

And with that, I close with another quotation:

"Geez, all that money we waste on space exploration; just think how many bombs that would buy!"

-Craig Bruce (I have no idea who this guy is, but I came across the quote while reading up on Constellation some time ago.)