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Space Exploration Lifts Our Spirits

Posted on: Sunday, 6 April 2008, 03:00 CDT

By Jeremy Sherer

LAST week, NASA announced that it was planning to shut down one of JPL's two robotic rovers which is currently exploring the planet Mars, and it will significantly limit the activities of the second Mars rover. Both actions were labeled as cost reduction measures amounting to approximately $4 million in "savings."

Though I am only 29 years old and did not personally experience the awe and excitement of the space race of the 1960s, I couldn't help but be overcome by a deep sadness. Fortunately, within 72 hours of this announcement, NASA rescinded the decision and will allow the Mars rovers, appropriately named "Spirit" and "Opportunity," to continue their mission.

I am relieved in NASA's backtrack due to the fact that since the conclusion of the World War II, no endeavor has so rallied America as a whole than our race against the world to touch the face of God. America has been divided against itself repeatedly since the end of World War II - the Civil Rights movement; Vietnam; Watergate; and now the war in Iraq. However despite the trials and tribulations that have accompanied the maturation of our nation, we have all looked to the skies with the same sense of wonder and amazement.

In 1962 President John Kennedy challenged our imaginations and our determination to push the bounds of our universe beyond our own stratosphere. "We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war."

Our nation's commitment to exploring space has been ignorant of political party. Speaking to the nation the night of the Challenger tragedy, President Ronald Reagan stated, "It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them."

Today our economy is shuddering, socio-economic disparities are greater than they've been since World War II, and China, Russia and others are exponentially increasing their investments in space exploration. The fleeting yet very real and very serious economic strains that our nation and its families carry cannot be ignored. But the price of our efforts to make today more bearable cannot come at the cost of our dreams and our long term investments in knowledge and exploration.

People do not go hungry because of space exploration, people do not lose their homes because JPL's Mars rovers continue their mission, and certainly schools do not fail to meet No Child Left Behind standards because we invest in science and technology.

Generations of Americans dreamily watched as Neil Armstrong bounded across the face of the moon, and generations of Americans have cried as our brave astronauts perished in service of their nation - all the while political scandal, economic crises and violence plagued our nation just as it does today. Despite all of this we have never wavered in our quest to understand the world and universe in which we live.

According to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, man explores space and pushes past our moon and toward Mars because it is "what's next.""(Because) we came out of the cave. And we looked over the hill, and we saw fire. And we crossed the ocean, and we pioneered the West, and we took to the sky. The history of man is hung on a timeline of exploration, and this is what's next."

The history of America was not written by the souls of the timid, and neither shall we realize our dreams through a spirit of timidity. The space program is an embodiment of all that is good about America. It exemplifies the unifying hope of possibilities upon which stretched this nation from ocean to ocean to the heavens. Lest we forget the sacrifices made by those before us, our dedication to the exploration of space must and should remain complete.

Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune

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