There are times, and those times seem to be coming more and more often, when I truly dispair for the human race. More specifically, I despair over the human race's seeming shunning of exploration and risk taking. It's almost as if we, as a species, have forgotten that we have come this far precisely because we took risks and explored.

Now, any mistake, any misstep, any accident, and it's "Why are you doing that?", "You shouldn't be doing that!". As if we have decided that from this point out, the rules change. No exploration if there's risk involved. No pushing forward if a person may be injured. Hell, we even consider harsh language as an 'injury' now.

NASA says "Let's go to Mars!" - the American public says "There's more important things here on Earth". We've heard that line before, folks. And we lost the moon because of it. Never mind that there's He3 in them there moon rocks - a more powerful energy source than anything we have here on ole terra firma. (Three shuttle loads a year would power the USA for a year) Never mind that if we had the moon today, we'd have Mars tomorrow. (And who knows what spinoff tech we'd have already) Never mind all the benefits of space, just look at the tragic costs of 'that boondoggle'!

I chalk it up to what my friend calls "the attention span of a gnat's ass" of the American people. You can see that everywhere. From politics to war to 9/11 to even patriotism. Space never had a chance against those other things. Space was boring. Space was not interesting.

Well, risk is never boring. Real risk. Risk as in the "If we don't do this right, we're gonna die" mentality. And sometimes, regrettably, they did die. I, for one, will never forget them. Those bold, courageous, explorers of the cosmos. Those who knew the risks, rolled the dice, and lost. They burn in my memory like shining stars. But sometimes... sometimes we roll the dice and we, as Commander Adama says, "roll the hard six". But that takes guts, and boldness, and an appreciation of the real risks involved.

I think that every schoolchild in America should watch Apollo 13 in their classroom - with a teacher who truly understands what the space program was all about. That story is one of the most amazing in our young country's history. Also, I'd include "From the Earth to the Moon", and "When We Left Earth" to that list. Our real space adventures have seemingly come to a close, and our wonderful astronauts are slowly leaving us, one by one.

We can't afford to forget our exploratory roots. It's as dangerous as forgetting to eat, only more so.

I don't usually do this, but here are the Amazon links to any of the above mentioned titles you don't have. If you haven't seen any of them, I strongly suggest it.