Plato once said, “Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. “ Indeed he was right, men have always been compelled to the infinite stars for answers, and we’ll continue doing so.
Space has always fascinated me, and being tiny Singapore, we’ll never ever be part of that exploration, or the exciting space race. It will always be the Americans, Russians, and now emerging powerhouse such as China.
But however if you’ve the resources such as Malaysia, back in 2007 they bought 18 of Russian warplanes that’s worth billions in exchange for a Malaysian to tag along in the Russian Soyuz 11 flight into space.
I could never rationale such an exchange, was it worth all that money for that single piggyback space ride.
I’m sure the Singapore gahmen ain’t that spendthrift such as our Malaysian counterparts, and with that we still don’t have any Singapore astronauts.
I would rather have our own astronaut earn his merit badge for his place of any space flight, rather than buying his way through it.
Political views aside, the next exploration is of course Mars. And with the video below I do agree with Obama on forgoing any more missions to the Moon, Been there … Done that!, but set our sights on Mars instead.
16th April – Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reports from Washington.
“Nobody is more committed to human space exploration than me.” Barack Obama, the US president, made the statement at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Thursday in defence of his controversial plan to cancel a programme run by Nasa aimed at returning astronauts to the moon.
Politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties attacked the move, saying it would take away many jobs across the nation.
But Obama assured the country of his commitment, announcing he will add $6bn to Nasa’s $19bn annual budget over the next five years.
He also said he aims to provide the US with “new spacecraft by 2025, that allows us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space”.
“I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth,” he said.
