
Buzz Aldrin on the moon, 1969 (photo taken by Neil Armstrong)
As a little girl in the late 80s I received a telescope for a birthday gift from my family. It was my most treasured possession for years, so thinking about NASA without its space shuttle program literally gives me the spooks. Today is a very sad day for many, as Atlantis
landed at the Kennedy Space Center on its 135th and last mission to the International Space Station. Though the 30-year program has officially ended, it's merely semi-comforting to know that NASA is still looking forward to
future projects and trying to stay positive.
I know that human shuttles are not the only element to space exploration but the lack of an actual commitment to the scientific quest for knowledge, once commonplace, seems to have somehow eroded in the minds of many Americans. Although
American citizens still want the US to ultimately dominate space exploration, one doesn't need a CNN poll to recognize that those numbers are significantly down from earlier decades.
The broad "dumbing down" of our educational system has a lot to do with this. The masses may understand how to operate their iPhones, but unfortunately this doesn't mean they have much solid understanding of technology -- the people who created and built the iPhones are the ones with that knowledge. I really believe that even with so many useful tech gadgets consumed, many people fail to recognize that these things were built for laymen. That's why they're easy to use!
As a critical realist I see a pretty creepy correlation between the pseudo-confidence from the advent of the tech/design social boom and a common attitude of dismissal towards actual hardcore science and research. Ironic but it's happening. Technology these days is all about me-me-me (or you-you-you), which should be fine. But thinking about the universe in deeper ways automatically makes one feel so small and insignificant...and unfortunately, feeling small and insignificant is not at all what people are interested in these days (even if it's for human progress).
We have absolutely no substitutions or alternatives for NASA's core programs. Contrary to what many people may be inclined to believe lately, practitioners of other disciplines are simply incapable of contributing to this level of science in any meaningful way. It's way beyond most of us, yet not revered the way it should be.
But it's always about the money, right? Well regarding the US budget, we should seriously reconsider our channeling of billions of dollars into deteriorating wars abroad before cutting off spending that will hardly make a dent in our country's debt (do the math, the equation is pathetic). We're going backwards in time with the stifling of NASA programs. I worry about a future generation of uninspired American children who have a hard time thinking outwards in a big-picture state of mind.