By Kyle Jorrey
Sports Editor
Yeah, I know this is a sports column and I’m supposed to be a sports columnist. It’s not like I can just write about what I please, choosing at random from a variety of topics, after all, sports provides plenty of material. Who couldn’t find something to write about in all of that menace and mayhem?
Well, this week was one of those weeks in sports that failed to inspire, at least in the wake of what was going on outside of it.
Anyone, excluding those living in destitute caves, knows that this week’s biggest news was the crash of the space shuttle Columbia. The tragedy, which played out right before the eyes of onlookers around the country, has sent shockwaves through a country already gripped by fear of war.
But even more frightening then the crash that cost the lives of seven well-trained NASA astronauts has been the reaction of some Americans.
The people who are saying the space exploration program is a waste money. Critics saying we should think about the problems on Earth before we try, as Kathleen Thurston of Boston, put it, “to conquer space.”
This minority opinion must be coming from the kind of people who leave the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter when their team is down 17 because they want to beat traffic.
After almost a half century of space travel, Saturday morning’s crash was one of only four previous setbacks (Apollo I, 1967; Apollo 13, 1970; Challenger, 1986). I say that’s a pretty good track record considering space travel is probably the riskiest and most dangerous endeavors mankind has ever faced.
But what people like Thurston and others don’t get is that in order to save Earth the only hope we have is to explore and study space. Though we might not see it in our lifetime, or even our children’s, the planet is eventually going to run out of space. And what then?
According to projected populations, in 50 years there’s going to be 2 billion people in India, a billion in the United States and Mexico, and 4 billion in China. And that’s only four countries.
Whether we like to think about it or not, we’re going to have to put all those people somewhere, and I don’t think we’re all going to just up and move to the empty Midwest. Would you like to spend your days kicking it in Omaha or Topeka? I think not.
So what we have left is the vast expanse of space, and that is why this country spends $50 billion a year exploring it, and why we must not let tragedy hold us back. The people who dawn NASA uniforms know beforehand what they are getting in to, and they are heroes because they accept that risk for the betterment of society. A lot like American soldiers fighting in the Middle East.
I’ll leave the last words to the parents of the astronauts, who presented a statement to the public earlier in the week.
“And although we grieve deeply, as do the families of Apollo 1 and Challenger before us, the bold exploration of space must go on.
“And once the root cause of this tragedy is found and corrected, the legacy of Columbia must carry on for the benefit of our children and yours.”
— Like space travel? E-mail Kyle Jorrey at kyle.jorrey@pepperdine.edu
February 06, 2003