Over the past several month, off and on, I've been reading with some amusement, and bemusement, the various Moon Hoax threads, and now the Mars Hoax thread.

Amusement, because of the faulty, if not outright fallacious science being quoted as gospel, irregardless of numerous attempts to correct it.

Bemusement, because all too many seem willing to buy into the falsehood.

Anyway, that's not the real reason I started this thread...

A couple of nights ago, a question was asked on one of the Hoax threads about why do we need the Space Program, or words to that effect. They struck a chord with me, and I decided to get philosophical...hey, it's what I do . Plus I'm a points whore, and I"m hoping a thread of mine might actually take off...lol.

Why the Space Program? Why do we spend our treasure and resources going to Mars or the Moon, why crash a probe into a comet or into the Jovian atmosphere...why...why...why?

For many, many thousands of years, at least, maybe since our ancestors climbed down out of the trees in Africa, we've gazed in awestruck wonder at the stars above us in the vault of the sky. For not quite that long, we've wondered what are they? Were they other suns, and if they are, are there other worlds around them. Men died for expressing these thoughts, and asking those questions, yet despite it all...the question remained firmly rooted in the imaginations of anyone bothering to look up at night...

For the longest time, the stars were our guideposts on our journeys across our world, if such and such a star is here, we're headed this way. As such, they were and still are, our friends. On warm summer evening who hasn't gazed up at the stars twinkling down at us so cheerfully through the hot muggy air?

As they've beckoned to us on our journey's here on Earth, how can we ignore the beckon that urges, even pleads with, us to leave this nest and join them.

Our first tentative steps have begun that journey...I sat beside my mother and father that evening in 1969 when mankind took that first bold step...We'd landed on another world! I saw, for the first time, my mother cry. I never knew why until I saw the shuttle lift off, and return safely for the first time. I knew right then, and right there, that the Earth will not always be our home.

To this day Armstrong and Aldrin hold a special place in my heart...They were the messengers who told a world that more worlds await, and that it is time to go!

Who doesn't remember those pictures from the Viking Landers of landscapes not so dissimilar to places here on Earth? Or the pictures of worlds so wonderfully and delightfully weird as to beggar our imaginations, from the Voyager spacecraft as the blazed the first trail out of the Solar System on their long plunge into the darkness beyond, heading for those freindly twinkling little stars...

Now more Martian probes have sent back information that may indicate that life might be present now, or in the past. Only water? But as a single note from a trumpet may indicate the possibility of a symphony, so too does water indicate the possibility of life elsewhere in our Universe.

Oh, the possibilities!!

But why go?

Man is, at heart, a wanderer. An explorer. Yearning to see new vistas, experiance places we've never been. Man is never more wonderous then when challenged. This is, I submit, our ultimate challenge. To join the heavens and tread among the stars. Our ultimate destiny, what ever that is, lies not here, on this rather insignigicant little blue rock. But out there, yondering amongst the stars.

If we don't destroy ourselves by ignoring the angels of our better natures. Something awaits us our there...I'd hate for us to miss it due to our prediliction for violence. I don't think we will, but the jpossibility is there...

I started this thread over two years ago... Always wondered why it didn't get more of a response...

Am I alone in this supposition? That our destiny, as a race, lies not here on Earth, but somewhere out there beyond the bounds of our little Solar System.

These dreams of mine are rekindled every time I hear of new plans for space exploration, and yes, exploitation, too. Mankind was not meant to stay here. The stars beckon to us every time we look up. Haven't you ever wondered about what's out there?

Danger. Adventure. Treasures both physical and not so physical. Knowledge. Possibly Wisdom. Maybe, just maybe, freinds, too.

What's keeping us?

The quest to understand one's self and one's world is the very core of the human experience. It was our desire to know what is over the next hill that brought humanity to every corner of the globe, while our cousins stayed behind in the veldt picking fleas off one another. Just as our ancestors didn't know how useful it would be to overcome their fears and keep that burning stick they found alive, so we fail to understand how something as seemingly irrelevant to our daily lives as visiting an asteroid might be to our future. To those who mock the space program, when, not if, an asteroid is found barreling towards Earth for what will likely be an extinction level event, wouldn't you like to know that we might be able to do something about it?

Very well expressed, OP. If only more people shared your sentiments....

Seagull

S&F. What a great post, and it's a shame that I didn’t see it sooner.

As you said, throughout history, man has been inclined to explore new horizons, a wanderer...an explorer with a desire to expand their horizons (both figuratively and literally).

Unfortunately, I've noticed a severe, almost fatal case of apathy amongst us, and it seems to become more profound daily.

I have a question for you though, or for anyone else that has been around for a while. At the height of the moon race, how was the general attitude? Was the majority of the public excited about it? Hopeful? Inspired? I only ask because I wasn’t around.

I'm curious to know though... In this day and age, and this is based on my experiences and observations, people just do not care about a lot of things, much less space exploration. People look for the "what's in it for me in the short term" now, and such a long endeavor such as space exploration just is not that appealing to the masses...

Trying to even engage in an intelligent discussion regarding anything now a days is strenuous to say the least...

Who got booted from a reality show? Now you're talking!

Did you hear about the proposed FY11 budget for NASA? Meh who cares.

You know, with the establishment of the interstate highway system by Dwight Eisenhower, Americans became more likely to "explore" their country, sadly, I think it ended there.

Again, best thread I've read in a while. Thanks!