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Why the rush to the final frontier?
I have never been impressed with the concept of men on the moon, men living in space stations or men travelling to other planets. I never wanted to be an astronaut -- it always seemed like a dumb idea to me. Why, I wondered, would I be worried so much about going somewhere else when there is so much going on right here on the good old terra firma? With all of the strife happening on land, why would anyone worry about a huge tub of nothing where absolutely nothing is going on? I've always said the closest I'll get to the stars is how high I jump when I'm on an airplane. I figure that everything beyond the sky is as majestic as it is mysterious -- why break the spell by actually going there? Which brings me to the news: there's been a competition going on in full-swing lately to see who can build a functional rocket ship. There are a few catches: no government funding and no military help, just civilian money and effort. And, in addition to being privately funded, the ship has to make two succesful flights in two weeks and carry three people "up into the atmosphere." The prize: $10 million. The competition was won last Monday by a ship not surprisingly funded by Paul Allen whose team received what was labeled as the "Ansari-X Prize." On Oct. 4, the ship's second flight, pilot Brian Binney flew his hunk of junk more than 360,000 feet in the air. Binney's flight broke the world record set by Joseph A. Walker, who piloted a military X-15 354,200 feet in 1963. Now, please note that none of these distances actually mean anything to me. I can't fathom what 360,000 feet looks like, nor do I try. I could be clever like my old grade-school teachers and equate it to something like 360,000 foot-long Subway sandwiches, but that does me no good either. In the end, distances further than I can see just become "far." But anyway, when I hear talk about space ships, space stations and Mars rovers that go these "far" distances, I get sick to my stomach. There are other numbers associated with these ridiculous excursions in space that do mean something to me and those are the ones that deal with "near" topics like money and resources. If one considers the price tag the United States has put on space travel since the first missions to the moon were considered, the numbers are appalling. Billions and billions and billions of dollars. And for what? Nothing. You see, space is a funny thing. There's a lot of it, but really not too much in it. Besides your typical heat and light energy, there isn't too much to get from space, other than maybe awesome freeze-dried ice cream the astronauts pick up on their way back from the moon to sell at museums. Other than that, there's not too much return on your deposit. And as taxpayers, we're all depositing. I would rather just believe in gods and aliens rather than shell out all that cash just to find out that nothing's out there. How about using that money to pay for, uh, education? And another thing from the competition to add insult to injury, from CNN.com you might learn that "the non-profit X Prize Foundation is sponsoring the contest to promote the development of a low-cost, efficient craft for space tourism in the same way prize competitions stimulated commercial aviation in the early 20th century." Space tourism, they must be joking. Iraq, Iran, Sudan, AIDS and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are all crowding the American dream, and we've got a bunch of rich old white men looking to promote "space tourism." I'd like to send them all off in the spaceships and then have them magically not be able to afford to come back. I'm not spiteful. Overall, I think the idea of space travel is worthless fodder, coddling itself in the realm of people who use too many of the wrong kind of drugs and get caught up wishing they were extras in some sci-fi movie playing opposite Liv Tyler. Today, this very day, people are wasting valuable resources on pipe dreams and inane pet projects to promote some twisted form of elitism dealing with rockets and sprockets, while the majority of people in the world are just struggling to get by. I swear, tomorrow must be better. |
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