September 16, 2013

Wasted Space

image by Howard Eskildsen, Ocala, Florida

After yesterday's LPOD about the upcoming Chinese rover mission to the Moon, to be followed in a few years by a sample return mission, and with planning underway for a human trip about 10 years from now, Howard's poster is a needed kick in the pants. Howard writes that this image was inspired by a visit yesterday to the Container Store when my wife, Fairy, mentioned how she hated wasted space. A light came on, and I realized how much I hated that we could no longer fly our astronauts into space. This image composition resulted, and is the first of several that I have in mind It is unbelievable that the USA did Apollo and then nothing in human exploration of our solar system for 40 years; and we still have nothing on the drawing board. If human exploration had continued with the same rate of improvement as robotic spacecraft - compare Curiosity with Mariner 9 - we would be all over the solar system by now. When I was young I thought humans would travel widely across space, and that perhaps I would be one of them. But now when I encourage kids to study math and science and maybe they will be the first human to reach Mars I doubt if it will happen. I wish we had inspiring goals. Chuck Wood

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