The dream of space travel has been one of the constants of the 20th, and now the 21st, century. The notion that daring and capable men and women will go out beyond what the rest of humanity knows, out into a great unknown, to see things no one else has seen, and do things that no one else has done, captured the imagination of the world and never let go. Buck Rogers, Captains Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway, the Space family Robinson, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and characters from a dozen modern sci fi shows from Battlestar Galactica to Dr. Who to Farscape to Stargate all embodied this notion, this dream, that there were fantastic things to be done in space, and that one day we would get to do them.
The reality has not lived up to our expectations. As brave and capable as the astronauts have been, it always seemed that something was missing. Some spark, some undescribable thing, was missing. The astronauts were there, taking their first steps into the void, but after Apollo 11, things just didn't live up to our expectations any more.
Part of it is the inescapable fact that reality is never as fantastic as the dream of it. Dreaming about going somewhere, anywhere, is almost always more romantic than doing it. No mosquitoes, no getting lost or running out of gas. The same is true for space travel.
Another part of it is that space travel has stagnated for 40 years. Until very recently, no new rockets had been developed for decades. Atlas, Delta, the Space shuttle, Soyuz, and Ariane have all been around for decades. Policies and procedures have hardened to dogma under the guise of crew safety, which was held as THE single most important thing. Not exploration, not progress, not prestige, not any of the banners under which men and women have repeated worked and sacrificed and died for, but safety. A laudible goal, but ultimately self-defeating, since the safest thing to do is stay on the ground.
But the biggest reason why space travel has not lived up to its dream is that there is no mystery to it. No unexpected discoveries, no alien planets never seen before by man, nothing left to chance. Our intrepid astronauts are traveling bravely into the KNOWN. If they go back to the moon, their landing sites will have been mapped out robotically down to the pebble. They will know exactly what to expect. And so will we, as armchair observers watching over their shoulders. And we cannot help but be disappointed.
To explore, we must go farther than we can see. Beyond the horizon. Over the next hill. Around the next bend. The lunar adventure I'm hoping to join goes beyond the horizon It may not be safe, but it is prestigious, and it is progress. It is exploration, and setting sail in a tiny ship beyond the confines of Earth to see the side of the moon perpetually hidden from Earth has all the mystery, risk, and romance you could ask for.
