Today's Most Publishable Thought

Ever since I found full episodes of Carl Sagan's Cosmos on the interweb I've been thinking a lot more about the universe as a whole from the perspective of our modern knowledge of outer space (as imparted to me by the Discovery Channel).

Anywhere outside of our mother earth is bound to be hostile to our human bodies because we evolved specifically for life on a planet in a window of time so small on the grand scheme (before us there were 4 billion years of prokaryotic simple celled life, 6 billion more years until the simplest of animals even appeared, and then the dinosaurs ruled the planet for 160 million years... and that was 230 million years ago in the very place where you're sitting, reading this (well... really, here in Kansas there'd be an ocean filled with creatures we may never know a thing about).

In contrast: our species has only even looked the way it does for 200,000 years. Christopher Columbus-- nevermind Leif Eriksson, Henry I Sinclair, or Earl of Orkney-- only informed the "civilized world" of the existence of the American continents a mere 500 years ago. Our perspective of the cosmic waltz is so limited with our lifespans (only 50 percent of children born in 1900 would even make it to age 50).

With our whole dear planet clearly visible to any idiot with Google Earth these days, outer space is truly the final frontier. The fact that humans have the space travel capabilities (meager as they may seem compared to science fiction, though we've certainly come a long way since the Apollo missions) that are as advanced as they are in our lifetimes is really exciting.

Now everyone knows me: I think Bush is a disgraceful president and feel it would be a tremendous victory for many things I believe in if Barrack Obama was elected President next year (sorry, this isn't a political ad; bear with me). But one of the last things Bush has mentioned in his last years as president is that we should push forward with the space program. I know we're in horrific debt that my children will still be paying for... but I TOTALLY AGREE with Bush on this one.

Recently NASA has been hard at work (i.e. spending millions of dollars) planning an as-of-yet-unscheduled mission back to the moon, possibly to set up a base camp, possibly to facilitate later manned (or womanned) missions to Mars. With the evidence of fossilized life on Mars we've found in the past, I think Mars is a place where we may even broaden our perspective on how life forms.

Here's a video NASA put out last year to sort of rally support for the project:
Badass, huh?

Maybe other people won't agree with me because of the spending required to fund these projects in search of what Carl Sagan says "just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history... of history." I heartily disagree with plunging into some strange insurmountable debt over a war that only breeds more hatred and death, but maybe some things are more important than a "national deficit."