I’ve been a proponent of space travel ever since I was young and discovered Star Trek. One on level, this was due to the excitement of travelling the galaxy and seeing new and exciting new things, reaching out to find civilizations, boldly going, and all that fun stuff. It wouldn’t be until I was older and Kirk’s many green-skinned dates started to look more interesting and when I was much older that I started to look at space exploration as a species survival mechanism.
Whoops. Wrong picture.
Ah, there we go.
Now, I’m not trying to be alarmist, but if our species stays in one place – namely this planet – we’re toast in the long run. If we don’t manage to destroy ourselves through war or flat-out wrecking the environment in the name of profit, something is going to get us eventually. Most people know about the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, that hunk of space debris that whacked the dinosaurs along with most life on the planet, but that was just one of many times the Earth teetered on the brink of becoming yet another lifeless hunk of space rock. The bottom line, folks, is we need to get off this rock and scatter to the stars so we don’t have all our bread in one basket.
Fortunately, science is on our side. With all the rhetoric and kerfuffle surrounding the current U.S. leader and the Russians, it’s easy to forget that wars are started by politicians, not normal people. Normal people usually don’t care about countries unless they’re prompted to, scientists even less so. Science doesn’t care about politics or religion or elections, it cares about science and what it can do for us.
I recently read a story that reminded of two things: science is still working and not everyone is completely batshit insane these days. In order to get off planet, we need to take baby steps. Among other things, that’s going to require getting back to the moon and establishing a permanent presence there. That’s no small feat and one that’s going to require cooperation – something sorely lacking in the world these days. Science has our back, though; US and Russian scientists are working together to get us into space.
Because we can either have this as a future.
Swim up pinball machine? Hell, yeah!
Not actually New Mexico. Yet.
Or this.
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And now, your moment of Zen
Eric Lahti 
I heard about the cooperation with Russia on BBC and it felt like a great news. I have had the same thoughts myself about being stuck on this planet forever. The lure of profit regardless of anything is killing the planet, and once the planet is dead, we are toast.
Who knows, maybe we can come across some planets without life that we can exploit and some that are full of life that we can integrate into. It’s win-win.
Good one, Eric. We simply must look at long term sustainable ways and places to live. Thanks for sharing.
I guess that’s the real problem, right? No one wants to explore sustainable ways to live anymore, we just want to exploit everything and hope for the best. Hope ain’t a plan.
So with you in this, and maybe if there’s a few fewer of us in earth the planet can have a moment or two to regenerate!
Plus, you know, less traffic. 🙂
Yeah, baby!
I’ve always said that if we can ever find another planet to settle on, I’d be one of the first volunteers to hop on the Mothership, with one exception – no freaking politicians. No sense in scr*wing up a good thing before it gets started. 😚
You are right Eric – science does not stop. Good thing scientists continue cooperating even when their countries are displeased with one another.
I love Star Trek and I love Godzilla, so win-win on the pictures alone. I hadn’t read about the US/Russian collaboration on this project, but it’s cool to think that progress is being made. Thanks for the info!
It would be pretty incredible if we could get a space station orbiting the moon in our lifetimes.
It’s great these two countries are collaborating on something positive for the future. Thanks for sharing!
I really like the idea of scientists working together and telling politicians to piss off.
Sounds interesting! I wouldnt mind exploring the new planet or space to live. But hope we learn from our mistakes on our planet Earth and do not repeat them on the newer worlds!
Let’s hope so. I like to think if we took an enormous amount of effort to get somewhere, we’d treat it with a bit of respect, but you never know.
Eric, we will some day definitely need a solution–this sounds like a step in the right direction.
It’s going to take a lot of little steps to get to the stars; I’m glad to see we’re starting to take them.
Hi Eric – thank goodness for peoples who do reach across borders and collaborate to find positive ways of helping our world and thus its people … cheers Hilary
If only our politicians could so the same thing. Imagine what we could accomplish without all the petty infighting.
We’re so smart about reaching for the stars – how come we can’t preserve our own beautiful earth? Great post thanks Eric – for the sentiments by you and the commentators.
I think the biggest mistake the environmental lobby ever made was hitching its horse to global warming. Not saying I don’t believe in global warming, there’s far too much evidence to support it, but it’s so big and hard to comprehend, most people just dismiss it out of hand. Personally, I like the idea of clean air and water and would like to see more people taking an interest in preserving those things.
we can all do our bit – less plastic, no littering etc etc etc
Man is slowly but surely doing a very good job of self-destructing!
I’m sure scientists would do a better job as leaders, than politicians…just look at the current state of the world! So much need and greed for power – but at the rate we’re going, there’s no consideration that there WON’T be a world for these power-hungry politicians to rule!
And we all know that sustainable living is the buzzword…I’ve read lots of #WATWB posts that touch on sustainable living.
Thank you for the moment of Zen! It made me chuckle!
#WATWB #InDarknessBeLight
The problem is, our politicians don’t care if there’s a world in the future; they’ve got theirs right now and the promise of more coming in, so why would they worry what’s going to happen down the road? For people that are supposed to chart the course for the nation, they’re doing a piss-poor job.
Very true… Wars aren’t started by the common man, they’re started by men who never had anything to lose. I watched the TV Series The Expanse, a few weeks ago, and I admit, the idea of building life on the Moon and the other moons of other planets, and maybe on some asteroids in between, is increasingly looking like a better option, because we Earthlings seem intent on destroying the only planet we have. Thank you for sharing this with us and reminding us that we have only One Earth.
Reblogged this on Rebecca Bryn and commented:
Great post, Eric.