Onward To Mars!

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a mostly excellent editorial in today's paper: From Kitty Hawk to Mars in which they propose that the US should dedicate itself to landing a man on Mars.

I agree with them and I think that today, the culmination of the first centennial of flight, is the perfect opportunity for us to rededicate ourselves to push the envelope; to expanding our dreams, wishes and capabilities.

Is there a practical purpose to going to Mars? Maybe, maybe not. We won't know until we get there. But was there a practical purpose to going to the moon? No. We did it simply because it was there. We learned some things about the moon from the samples brought back, but in the end it wasn't the trip to the moon itself that was so important.

It was the achievement. It was the pushing of boundaries. It was the sense of pride that we figured out how to beat gravity and space to fly a man millions of miles, to land him on another celestial body and return him safely. How many advances were made during the early and mid 1960s, that were related to the space program, that are considered to be commonplace today? Hundreds, if not thousands. When Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon for the first time, that didn't advance the state of the art. It was the process of getting him there that advanced it. It was the achievement that spurred us on to greater heights. It was the inspiration.

Since the shuttle program started up, we have become complacent. We seem to fear the idea of pushing the envelope, of testing our boundaries. We make excuses about practicality. We feign disinterest.

It's time to stop acting scared. It's time to believe that we can do this. It's time for us to want to do this. We may not learn a single thing from putting a man on Mars, not one thing, but think of what exotic advances may come of the process of getting him there. Think about what new technologies may be created that will be commonplace in twenty years.

Think about what we can achieve, not what we have already achieved.

Mars is waiting.