Why we go to space

In Lucretius’s epic 1st century poem, On The Nature of Things, he wrote “There is nothing that exists so great or marvelous that over time mankind does not admire it less and less.”

Lucretius longed to understand the nature of our existence like many who came before him. And he certainly tried, On the Nature of Things wound up being divided into six books all of which explore the creation of the universe down to the atomic level. It is a beautiful, sometimes confusing, often profound, musing of one persons attempt to make sense of things that even today, we still don’t fully understand.

We still do this in a variety of ways, and one of the most powerful and rewarding is space exploration.

Last Thursday NASA landed a rover on Mars called, Perseverance and while I’ve written about the importance of this before it was surreal watching another landing in real time especially after such a terrible year. There is so much hope and awe imbued in these moments. That we could dare to try something so audacious and then to see it work? If that can’t remind every single one of us that we are capable of great things then I don’t know what will. That is just one reason why these missions are so personal. They aren’t just missions at NASA or for this team, the daring and the answers belong to every human whether people are even aware this is happening–it’s theirs just as much as mine or yours.

I know a lot of people wonder why even spend money on doing something like this–why go to Mars? Why orbit Jupiter? Why make these efforts when they are expensive and take so much time? We do these things because we are curious. It’s in our nature to wonder and to ask questions. If we stop doing that, a core part of our humanity is stifled.

As far back as we can look in modern human history one of the first things we did was look up at the sky to try to make sense of our place in relation to the stars. And now millennia later we know that we are literally made of the same things as those lights we’ve stared at for generations. We’ve always wondered, how do we fit in here? How do we relate to the cosmos and the planets, what does it mean that we’re here and perhaps the biggest question of all–are we alone?

That is one question Perseverance is setting out to answer. Exploring the cosmos helps us understand things like how the Jovian system formed or how our entire solar system came to be-why does this planet have ice and not this other one right next door? These seemingly very nuanced pieces of the puzzle are vital to the grand mosaic we have been building since we first asked those questions. If we want to keep that part of ourselves healthy and itching then we have to keep letting ourselves ask those questions, even if the answers are sometimes silent or slow to arrive.

No, sadly exploring Mars won’t solve the problems here on Earth but it’s not an either or issue, we can have both and we should. And if you missed the landing or even if you didn’t and would like to be reminded of how awesome it feels to land on another planet, please watch it here.

Lastly, so many of the responses to the rovers arrival this week reminded me that it’s ok for us to feel happy even in the midst of despair. So, I thought I would share this poem by Mary Oliver called, Don’t Hesitate.

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.”