...........but is it?

 I have spoken of expense and there is no doubt that space exploration would be expensive so we need reasons to make that sort of investment.

A lot of people have no wish to travel. They are quite happy to stay for all their lives, in the place and the area in which they were born. And there is nothing wrong with this. But the vast majority of the world's population love to travel or would do so given the opportunity.

If you come from the wide open, central plains of America, you would be astounded by the sight of the Rocky Mountains, the Alps or the Himalayas. If you live in the Florida Everglades you would thrill to the sight of the Pyramids and deserts of Egypt. If you live in the bustling heart of London, as I do, then the tranquillity of a small French village in the heart of the French countryside would be fantastic. Live on a cattle ranch a few miles from Alice Springs in Australia? Then how would you feel at your first sight of New York? Awesome, isn't it?

If we can all feel this much excitement and get such a thrill from visiting places on the other side of our own, small planet, think how much more exciting a trip to see the sights of another world would be.

Writers of science-fiction often talk of the Fire Mountains of Betelguese IV, the walking trees of the verdant forests on Vulcene III and the sulphur mines on the moons of Eridani. All quite fictitious of course but all possibilities. After all, it is a fact that the largest volcano known to science is Olympus Mons on the planet Mars. If we could really travel to the planets of other stars, who knows what we would see.

At present it is of course quite impossible to travel to any other planets for most of us. Let's face it, we have only managed to put a handful on men on the moon so far. Even if we could build a spaceship large enough to carry a man to the stars, the journey would take many thousands of years to reach even the closest. And we do not even know if any other stars have planets circling them. But only a little over a hundred years ago the fastest form of transport on Earth was the horse. And less than a hundred years ago man could not emulate the birds and fly. No, the automobile and the aeroplane were impossible dreams. Well, time and technology have given life to the dream. The Warp Drive and Transporter Beams of Star Trek may never be invented but who can really say for sure? The Faster-Than-Light (FTL) drive we will need to reach the stars may, or may not be impossible to build. But it is for sure that if we do not try then we will not succeed.

One of the constant themes and fears of science-fiction stories is of meeting an advanced and superior intelligence. The Universe, and our Galaxy within it, are old enough to have developed life many times over and in a wide variety of shapes and places. It is also young enough that we may in fact be the only life form anywhere. We could go out there and find the Universe already populated. But we could also go out and find that we are the first. We could spread our race across the Universe and we could in time become that advanced and superior intelligence. We could be the race that the newly arisen races of younger planets look to for guidance.

If we are alone but do choose not to explore then we will be overtaken eventually by a younger race. One that is possibly not even in existence yet. We now have the chance to become the masters of the Universe rather than the pitiful, parochial losers who let it all slip through our fingers.

War, they say, has produced most of the world's advances in science and medicine. During the stress of war, Man has discovered and invented much that has been of value to us all. But so too, have there been spin-offs from the exploration of space. Everyone knows of the invention of Teflon, the non-stick coating used in pots and pans, but it is a valuable addition to our world and was a by-product of the space exploration program. If all of Man's attention was turned to this effort what improvements we could expect in the future and what an increase in our standard of living!

Even in our daily lives we are the beneficiaries of science and space exploration. Television channels available all around the world. Telephone connections from anywhere to anywhere instantly and cheaply. Remember in the past when a long distance call would have to be arranged some days beforehand and cost a small fortune? And then the delay when speaking because of the time it took for the words to travel down thousands of miles of wire? Safety of our shipping and aircraft because of Global Positioning satellites which can tell even a car driver where he is on the planet to within a couple of hundred yards. Weather forecasting is getting better because of the number of satellites able to watch our skies for us from above.

Even the fact that you are reading this article is due to a group of space scientists getting together to pool information a few years ago. They were in different parts of the country and wanted to be able to share their information. So they worked out a way of joining computers together electronically over telephone lines. The World Wide Web is a spin-off from the space program.