Spaced Out

We've had a lot of fun over the years here at Randomization. But things aren't always fun and games in the world and today I would like to take a moment to talk to you all about something serious: the space program(HA! You all thought it was gonna be something funny; or at least something trying to be funny.)

I've been reading discovery news a lot lately, mainly, the space section of it. Everyday it seems that astronomers and scientists discover something new about space. The building blocks of life have been found everywhere and I predict that in the next 5-10 years, if not sooner, we will see on headlines all over that some micro-organism has been found on another planet and that there is life somewhere other than earth.

Not only this but much of the technology that we use today, and a lot of the stuff we are going to use in the future, are items that were invented by space programs(mainly NASA) in order to better protect their astronauts. Things such as memory foam, the technology for cell phones, an aerogel to soak up oil spills and a host of other advances.

And yet, Barack Obama, in all his wisdom, has pulled back funding and said we have to focus everything on mars; all without consulting his science advisor(firefox is telling me advisor is spelt wrong but dictionary.com tells be it's right, now I'm confused) or anyone in NASA. Now, this is very old news right now and I'm not here to talk about whether his decision is wrong or right(it's wrong), I'm just here to raise the question of whether or not we should care.

Everything I have heard is that everyone believes this will make the USA lose it's ranking as being at the front of the pack for space. Well, history has shown us that every superpower has eventually fallen, maybe it's that time for the US, at least in the space program. Now anyway you look at it, loosing funding for the US space program hurts everyone because of how countries have teamed up their space programs in the past years to work together. This doesn't just hurt the US but can hurt us all. I don't look at it as the US having the best space program, but has all the countries that are tied together(USA, Canada, Russia, etc.) having a program no one else can top, but can join.

I guess maybe the loss of American funding could be the thing to help propel every other country to step up their space program. But, who knows? The human race can be hard to predict at times and this particular subject is one that has always been a bit touchy, especially with those that believe in creationism. And Obama isn't gonna be in power forever. Maybe the next president will step up the funding again. Or this move might just do what he wants; help spark the private industry of space travel. Although, I can't see the private industry going all the way to Mars, or even the moon for that matter, but it might allow for some of the jobs that NASA and other space programs have to worry about off their hands.

I guess whatever happens will happen, I must say that I'm more excited for them to tell me that life exists elsewhere than I am for someone to step foot on Mars. But that's just me.

All I know is that NASA has become more than a symbol for the USA. NASA landed the first MAN on the Moon, not just the first American. It's a part of our history just as the Russian Space Program is for putting the first MAN into space.


Anyway, that's my rant. Steve should be happy that I finally put a decent sized post up...even if he is out of the Country! HAHAHA!