Good piece Mark.

Ya know, when I was a little boy my brother and I had NASA stuff all over our room. It was amazing to dream about flying a rocketship to the moon and beyond. What child that grew up in that time frame did not dream that dream. So, there's always a great deal of nostalgia when I read about what NASA is up to and sure I get excited about having our little robot explore Mars.

But...and this is a big but...is now really the time to focus on that? I will admit it's a nice distraction right now...and there's always that sort of Arthur C. Clark feeling that maybe...just maybe...our little robot on Mars will discover something wonderful...something that makes us feel whole...unites us all as a species in our awe and wonder...and creates a sense of community amongst all peoples because this discovery teaches us we really are all one people...it makes it unavoidable...and it makes all our petty differences and abhorrent behavior just seem so damn ridiculous...

As I see it right now though we have such big problems to solve right here that this is sort of the equivalent of looking up into the nighttime sky and wishing on a star...except we're paying a lot of money to look up into the sky and make that wish...

I love the way that space exploration makes us feel smaller and less important...like we're part of this much larger whole...surrounded by this giant cold void which seems to ignore us and dwarf our presence. I do think it's important and if we weren't throwing away billions upon billions on all sorts of other crazy crap then I'd be a lot more excited about the idea from a practical standpoint...right now though it just seems a bit confusing to be discussing such grand ideas while our troops are in Iraq.

I agree with MJG...it's frustrating because yeah, I've got that longing to know more about what's out there...