Space ...... the Final Frontier

My Dad worked for NASA, and I've been hooked on science fiction since intermediate school when Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time crossed my path. Star Trek: The Original Series was a common ground in my household, one of the few tv shows I enjoyed (and it was really 'out there' at the time), which my Dad also enjoyed.

Dad couldn't wait until the day when he could say, "Computer" and the machine would answer, "Working, working, working"! *chuckle* This from a mathematician/physicist who worked for NASA, but refused to use anything but a slide rule and mechanical pencil and paper throughout his entire career. Of course, in his own contrarian way, he insisted on getting his daughter and son the most up-to-date calculators he could afford, and talked me into minoring in computer science (an exercise in futility if ever there was one! Computers and I speak totally different languages!).

I still remember watching each of the launches with excitement and trepidation. Dad usually spent them out at Johnson Space Center, just in case something went wrong and he was needed for problem-solving. The only movie he ever watched that had to do with NASA was Tom Hanks' Apollo 13, which he said gave a reasonably accurate description of the flight and how they went about getting the crew back. He retired about the time the shuttle was being developed, as much because of his disagreement with the direction the shuttle was taking as with the retirement incentives (and serious dis-incentives for hanging in there) NASA began offering at the time.

And, I still look forward to the day when there will be commercial flights to a colony on the moon. I have a feeling that Dad would have enjoyed a trip to the moon, too. So, I keep track of the shuttle flights, and what's up with the space station, but, like so many of us, not as much as I used to. Have we/I gotten somewhat complacent, even with the danger of a new frontier which still exists? Have we started backing off of the excitement and potential of exploring the unknown of space up close and personal? I certainly hope not.

Space........... the Final Frontier. Anyone need a chaplain for the first moonbase?!