The Final Frontier

Recently, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon. It was with great vision that we embarked on this mission to send humans into space. We’ve learned so much from the technology that was developed to get us there. Countless scientific experiments have been conducted. We’ve peered through the looking glass at worlds that are right now beyond our reach.


The United States government, in the midst of a severe economic crisis, is faced with a decision on what goals our space exploration program should try for. Should we bankroll NASA to make preparations to go back to the moon, so we can set up a permanent base? The first stepping stones, along with the International Space Station, to get us ready for a manned trip to Mars? Or should we forget about a moon base and concentrate on deep space exploration with our first stop being the Red Planet?

Scientists say it would take six months for a crew to reach Mars. That’s not impossible, but putting more than one personality together in a small, confined space for six months would create problems. So, we need to work on our fuel to get us there faster. Everyone agrees that whatever we decide to use, materials to manufacture it would have to be found at our destination or along the way. Can you imagine what would happen if a crew would run out of fuel due to an accident or malfunction and then not be able to return to Earth?


From my earliest imaginations, I dreamt of space. I was a child of the original Star Trek and later Star Wars generations. I imagined that I would someday be in space, visiting far away planets and meeting new species. Sadly, we have not progressed that far in our technology that allows us to travel faster than the speed of light. It’s a pretty good bet we won’t find any life or humanoids within our solar system. So we need a new vision….the same as the first space explorers had when we landed on the moon.

I would hate to think that my children would pass from this life and not see humans landing on Mars. And it would be worse if my grandchildren could not dream about making contact outside our solar system.

We need a vision. We need another dream. Something bigger than ourselves. We don’t dare to set goals anymore that push us to do the impossible. Instead, in the interest of being politically correct and not hurting anybody’s feelings, we have dumbed down our society and made excuses for a culture that is so self-absorbed, it can’t think beyond it’s own agenda.

Space, the final frontier. Maybe it will take a global initiative, maybe it’ll just be us cowboy Americans. After all, forty years ago, we were the first……