Very early in the program, while the various initial boosters were still on the drawing board, Werner Von Braun, the father of our space program, worried that the mandate to put a human in orbit would turn the effort into a circus. He believed that automated probes would be cheaper and deliver more in terms of scientific discovery, that manned space flight would waste resources and lives.
The launch pad fire in 1967 that took the lives of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee re-ignited that debate, as did near-disaster of Apollo 13. Predictably, with the loss of the Challenger in 1986, and the lives of its crew, opponents of manned space flight once again marshaled its arguments.
In the wake of Saturday's tragic disintegration of STS Columbia on re-entry, we can be sure that this argument will re-emerge as part of the national debate surrounding our space program.
For 40 years, manned space flight has taken place at the very edge of our technological capabilities. Never mind that the space shuttle is an over-grown, glorified grocery truck, it represents the leading edge of our technical abilities ... plus, it is a very flexible and useful grocery truck.
But, every mission is fraught with peril. Every time we light that can of hydrogen on the belly of a space shuttle, every time the shuttle drops like a winged brick into the atmosphere, the lives of the crew are put on the line because the process is not and can never be 100 percent safe and risk free.
Seventeen astronauts have been killed in the last 40 years. If we continue the effort of putting humans in space, we will lose more.
Is it worth the risk? After all, our space probes are becoming more and more sophisticated. The Mars and Jupiter missions of the last decade seemed to vindicate Von Braun's assertion that automated probes are cheaper and can return a huge value for the investment. What's more, the last Mars mission cost about 25 percent of the cost of one shuttle launch and no lives were placed at risk.
But unmanned space missions just aren't the same. They engender no pride; they don't celebrate the human -- the American -- spirit of adventure, of discovery, of pushing back the dark of night the way a manned space mission can.
Apollo 13 was a terrifying moment in the history of our space program but it made heroes of James Lovell, Fred Haise and John Swigert. Few of us remember -- or even care about -- the highly successful Mars Viking project.
We need robotic space missions to help pave the way but the final frontier's grand adventure isn't real until we go there and touch it ourselves.
There is a painting of a pretty little girl wearing a red hat by Pierre-Agusta Renior hanging in the Chicago Museum of Art. You've probably seen pictures of that girl in her red hat in art books or prints of the painting hanging in someone's home. But, until you see the actual painting with your own, unaided eyes, you've never really experienced the depth and vibrancy of the color red. You can't even know that a particular color can have that kind of depth and vibrancy. When you think of it, is awe-inspiring.
Manned space flight is similar. Until we experience the adventure for ourselves, we can't know the awesome potential of human presence in space.
Our manned space program illuminates and even defines our national character and sense of adventure. Those 17 astronauts knew the risks involved and gave their lives in pursuit of that adventure in discovery.
The coming debate over our space program is welcome but, as we discuss its merits, we should never lose sight of the sense of wonder and our aching desire to experience what lies beyond that horizon with our own eyes and heart and mind.
In memoriam ...
• Apollo I (AS-204)-- Jan. 27, 1967 -- Ed White, Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee
• Challenger (STS-51-L)-- Jan. 28, 1986 -- Rick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAliffe
• Columbia (STS-107)-- Feb. 1, 2003 -- Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon
This column was published February, 2003 in the Cameron Herald.
