MUDGE’S Musings
Last post, we linked to a story from Wired magazine observing the 50th anniversary of the launch of the modern space age.
As frequently happens, the Economist, the best magazine on the planet, treated this subject this week, and most eloquently.
Sep 27th 2007
From The Economist print editionHalf a century of space exploration has actually served to illuminate the Earth
FIFTY YEARS ago the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik burst into orbit on October 4th 1957, in the midst of the cold war. It was a surprise to the world, a shock to many Americans, and the starting gun for the space race between the superpowers. Thereafter, America vied with the Soviet Union for supremacy in aerospace’s equivalent of “mine’s bigger than yours”, as successively taller rockets lobbed larger payloads further afield.
MUDGE is an amateur. These guys are the real deal.
[Please click the link below for the complete article — but then please come on back!]
Sputnik | Spacemen are from Mars | Economist.com
I shared those reveries about the future of space exploration.
I used to disdain the environmentalists. I’d proclaim: Let’s use this planet up; rather than wring hands and waste time on saving Earth, it’s the human race’s manifest destiny to expend the intellectual and financial capital to find new planets to exploit.
A young man’s conceit.
The old man that survives still believes that the young one was correct.
He’s just not certain exactly what Earth species will indeed explore and exploit the solar system and beyond.
Probably not his.
It’s it for now. Thanks,
–MUDGE
Posted by mudge 
Left-handed Complement 