Professor Elam

Manned exploration of space has been, well, much ado about nothing in my opinion.  Technical developments however have finally made real time global communication a reality what with satellites and all.  The problem in exciting folks about space is that, so far, all those weird Sci Fi creatures we love to see in the movies have yet to appear.  The best science can promise is a bit of water and perhaps a microscopic bit of, see there, under the 1,000x electron microscope, it lives, whatever it is. One writer opined that we have not been energized by space travel because apparently there is just not anything out there, at least in our reach in our lifetime or any near lifetime to come.

So, check out Charles Krauthammer’s column on the plans for a Moon Base. He is right, the shuttle was a three decade waste of time and money, and got a few folks needlessly killed for riding some sort of space bus to nowhere in particular.  Centuries ago the Chinese ventured forth on the high seas, found nothing of interest, and retreated back to China. I am not aware of any Indian excursions.

But the West, by golly, Magellan got things going in 1522 with his first circumnavigation of the globe, though he did not live to finish the journey.  That was an incredible leap from the Columbus Voyage that bumped into the New World instead of the intended Spice Islands off India.   Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mt. Everest.  Admiral Perry was first to the Pole.  As Krauthammer notes, no one thought much about
Antarctica till we went there.  GPS has us all going round the globe by sea (Cruising World Magazine) and air.

So what say you?  We have some great shots of outer space from the Hubble telescope. And who can deny the gorgeous shots at Visible Earth. An overlooked space movie would be the one script that Sean Connery accepted after considering quite a few  when he did Outland.  Eastwood makes fun of aging astronauts in Space Cowboys.

But, again, anyone want to move?  And should we let NASA do this or sublet to industry, consider Rutan’s project on the cheap that got a guy my age wearing a ball cap and jeans to the edge of space all for a measly $20 M bucks. Look Mom, no spacesuit!  NASA can’t make coffee in Clear Lake for that money.

As an alternate assignment, check out how many singers have recorded Fly Me to the Moon at iTunes!