Space

I was listening to NPR the other day, as I often do. It makes people at work think I'm on an important conference call. They have been talking about space a lot recently. On this particular day, the discussion was centered around getting Americans excited about the space program. Callers had lots of great and sometimes stupid ideas. One person, in particular, stood out to me.

The panelists all agreed that something about this recent trip to mars was anti-climactic. People just didn't seem to care. They were all baffled about why, until one woman spoke up. She claimed that America's disinterest was due to the fact that a robot was the one sent to mars. Although she agreed that it was dangerous to send humans to mars or even to space, she felt that we should do it anyway. That's how we'll get people involved, she claimed. Slowly panelists came to see her point, agreeing that a robot taking pictures was boring. Another caller said that we need to send a man up there with a flag because "that's what it's all about." It does seem really "American" to send someone to his death, so that people can say "cool." It also seems really boring to send a huge digital camera into space. I guess its a no win situation. Maybe we should work on poverty. Nah...that's boring.