Explorers wanted

Humans have been quite adventurous in the past. Our ancestors crossed vast continents, explored the wide oceans, braved ice and deserts as they expanded across the face of our home, Earth. Who knows how many lives were lost in this process, how many ships never returned, how many wagon trains never reached their destinations? Did this stop us? No, if it had we would not be where we are today.

But what about now? Since we’ve covered this planet, space must be our next destination. So why aren’t we doing more? Yes, I know, we’ve had a number of accidents and we’ve lost people and space ships. These are disasters that need to be examined so we can learn from our mistakes [and honor our lost heroes], but these should not be disasters that cause us to stop trying. Did our ancestors stop when a ship was lost, when a caravan did not survive? No, they kept trying and so should we.

The author, William Burrows, states in his book, “The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth,” that the current generation “increasingly has no sense of joy of purposeful adventure.” We need to inspire them, instruct them, encourage them, and motivate them. If nothing else will get people moving, then they need to look at how MUCH money can be made out in space (after all money seems to be the only thing that so many people are interested in)! John S. Lewis states in “Mining the Sky”, “[L]et's consider the smallest known M-type asteroid, the near-Earth asteroid known as 3554 Amun (two kilometers in diameter): The iron and nickel in Amun have a market value of about $8,000 billion, the cobalt content adds another $6,000 billion, and the platinum-group metals add another $6,000 billion.” That comes to a total of $20,000 billion. Current estimates put the total number of asteroids above 1 km in diameter in the solar system to be between 1.1 and 1.9 million. You do the math. If that isn’t enough to create a ‘gold-rush’ type stampede, I don’t know what will.

Albert Einstein once wrote in a letter to his son, “Life is like a bicycle, you have to keep moving in order to keep your balance.” We [humanity] have stopped moving, we’re stagnate, overweight, out of shape, uninspired, and without a vision. We need people who are willing to brave the dangers and take us that next step. Heck, if I had the money to build a ship (or two), I’d be willing to go. I suspect that space travel could not be any more dangerous than a trip down the average interstate highway (Florida, California, or Chicago for example!).

One last thing to consider: If the dinosaurs had a space program they would still be here. Big rocks do fall out of the sky. We need to be somewhere else before the next extinction sized rock heads our way. Don’t think they are out there? Read this!