I had the opportunity to spend a couple hours today with my kids on a field trip to the Neil Armstrong Museum. Here is a video slide show that I quickly put together using Picassa this evening while the kids were watching "The Bee Movie."
It was really inspiring to be reminded of what I consider one of the great feats in human history. At the same time there was a touch of sadness at a lost opportunity. As the video noted, I was born just after the first moon landing; thus, I was given the middle name "Armstrong." My wife and I have spoken of promises during our childhood about colonies on the moon and manned missions to Mars and beyond. By the time we reached middle school those promises were abandoned. Too bad. Tragic, really.
Though the international space station is a great cooperative venture (See this link: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/ISSRG/index.htm), it lacks some of the visceral appeal of a human adventure to the far reaches of the galaxy; it doesn't inspire in the same way that "one small step for man-one giant leap for mankind" did. That is part of the reason that you send men on the adventure: it fires the mind. Or, in the words of Plutarch that I heard quoted by an astronaut (Dave Scott, I believe, Commander of Apollo 15): "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited."
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