Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Don't Scuttle the Shuttle

How sad it is to witness the end of an era that was the Shuttle program.
Of course as a New Yawka I realize it's not over till it's over but this week we saw the (supposed) end of the below mentioned best series on television, Law and Order and the final landing of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.


I understand that NBC Universal is run by idiots and has been for years and that NASA must answer to a lower court, Congress but once in a while you have to hope that cooler more intelligent heads will prevail.

As far as the Space Program is concerned think about where the Atlantis just came back from.  It was visiting, it's still hard to fathom that thought, a huge conglomerate of metal that is the International Space Station (ISS.) This floating melting pot of a laboratory that houses astronauts and scientists from many nations of the World shows what great feats we humans can accomplish when we collectively put our minds to it.

A few wars ago we could never think of cooperating with or being allowed to spend time with people from Japan or Russia or any other former enemy.  And as hard as it is to believe we could actually enjoy welcoming people from North Korea or even Iran into the ISS some time in the future.  Naturally political posturing will have to give way to rational thought and the station itself will have to be kept alive until then.

A while back Sting sang a song that included the words, "I hope the Russians love their children too."  It was about an era of tension that threatened to explode into full scale war. Luckily it turned out he was correct.  But with suicide bombings around the World it appears safe to say he could not hold out the same hope for the parents of Islamic terrorists, at least not yet.

So it sounds naive to say give peace a chance while irrational beings sit in caves and plot the destruction of as many innocent human beings as possible supposedly in the name of God.

The lofty hope of a united Earth exploring the Universe seems rather dim.

But should we just give up?
Should we say we must devote all our resources to one arena?
I do not pretend to know the answer to our security problems nor do I feel they should be taken lightly.  But I do think we must not allow the few rotten apples of the Earth to dictate the direction of the future of mankind

To end this era is an error - Bring law and order back to the scientific community - Do not scuttle the shuttle.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cute. I still don't think Law & Order will return because it is all about money when it comes to corporations and television shows. If advertisers saw that they could make a buck spending on a show they would not hesitate to back it. But the truth about Law and Order is the bulk of the audience is a bit older than the current target audience of the average advertiser - Children who just learned how to go to the bathroom by themselves.
As for the shuttle money is almost the only concern. And with the administration fighting for every inch against a minority made up of morons in the Congress who want smaller government as long as it doesn't conflict with their bribe dollars I do not see a chance to resume shuttle service and space exploration.
Sad on both accounts but who knows - we both could be wrong.
I'll keep my fingers crossed - which may make it hard to comment on any future posts.