Posts Tagged by shuttle
The sad end of the Race
| July 29, 2011 | Posted by Fergus Doyle under international, science |
It’s sad that we, humanity (the good guys, if you will), have become disenchanted with space in the last 50 years. In the same month that the last shuttle funded by the American taxpayer was launched into space, I bought a copy of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. He predicted that, by 12 years ago, the first manned mission to Mars would have been launched and within 25 years the red planet would have been completely colonised. So, where did it all go wrong? Why have we only got as far as (albeit permanent) inhabited satellites floating in our cosmic back yard? Unfortunately, it’s all a matter of politics. In the 60’s, childish competitions such as the Space Race were… more