I missed out on the Space Race. From all accounts though it was an amazing time to be alive. The Russian launch of Sputnik into space revitalized American research and development and finally put Americans on the moon and created a permanently manned space station that orbits the planet (I was there for that part.) It seems though that the drive to put a man on a moon and one day other planets as well as spent itself. Despite making plans as early as the 1950s to put a human on Mars, nothing has come of it.
There of course has been a lot of talk. The President of the United States is even talking about a modern “Sputnik Moment.” A call for re-training and educating the Americans to deal with an economy that has moved beyond the twentieth century is a good thing and is greatly needed in our country. I doubt though that NASA and other such pursuits are not going to be the beneficiaries as they were of the first “Sputnik moment.” United States interest in the stars has steadily been declining, as has funding for such missions. In fact, one can argue that government funding for Science has been under attack since the Reagan administration, the latest example being Congressman Cantor’s idea to have non-experts cut science grants they don’t understand (or don’t agree with, or any ol’ reason.)
A manned mission of Mars seems to be a pipe dream at this point. But, only for Americans. China, Russia and India have announced plans to send probes to the red planet, Russia has discussed it since the 50s and India is actively calling for a joint international mission. Despite the President’s call for NASA to pursue a manned mission to Mars the agency doesn’t have any sort of plans for such a mission (their plans go beyond 2020 but fail to mention any manned missions.)
The debate recently heated up though when Paul Davies of Arizona State University and Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University published a paper advocating a one-way trip for astronauts to Mars. They aren’t advocating a suicide mission but instead the beginning of a permanent presence on the planet. This is exciting, even more exciting is to know that after the paper was published the authors in-boxes began to fill with people volunteering for the mission. What is lacking though isn’t the human spirit and will, it is the political will to make anything happen.
What has happened to Americans? When did we begin to dream small?
