Our view: Keep looking to the stars – Winston-Salem Journal

Space exploration is not a topic that strikes most of us with the same immediacy as tax reform or health care. Its not as urgent. But it is a topic with long-term implications for our nation that we would be wise to heed.

That message was bolstered when Captain Jim Lovell visited Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus on April 13 for a press conference and lecture. (He trained in celestial navigation at the planetarium some 40 years ago.)

Lovell, an astronaut who orbited the moon twice, is best known for commanding the crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 in April 1970. Malfunctions and the threat of death in space led to his famous phrase, Houston, we have a problem, and a 1995 film, Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks.

But instead of that cold fate, Lovell, his fellow astronauts, and the scientists and engineers working for NASA used their ingenuity to bring the Apollo craft and its passengers safely home.

This is a case where good leadership, including teamwork, are really what turned this into a successful recovery, Lovell said at a press conference in Chapel Hill.

Lovell, still sharp-minded at 89, supports space exploration, suggesting we return to the moon we barely examined the moon, he said in Chapel Hill before going on to Mars.

Volumes have been written about the technological advancements and leaps in knowledge made through space exploration. Our solar system beckons us with its wonders miles-high volcanoes, underground oceans just days ago, the ocean of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, was revealed to possess conditions that could support microbiologic life colorful, icy landscapes, whole worlds waiting to be explored. Scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson discuss colonizing Mars with entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, who is eager to send humans there.

The U.S. is not the leader in space exploration that it once was. Despite popular support, the NASA budget, miniscule in comparison to other programs, is often chipped at by a Congress looking for easy cuts. Its proposed 2018 budget is $19.1 billion, less than one percent of the total federal budget, and a 0.8 percent decrease from 2017. Missions to Mars and the Jovian moon Europa, which may harbor life under its icy crust, have been trimmed and postponed.

Other nations are stepping up to fill the gap and perhaps take the leadership role. India launched a successful Mars orbiter in 2014 and plans a lander next year. China expects to bring rock samples back from Mars in the 2020s. Russia is collaborating with the European Space Agency on several projects.

On Earth, we often find ourselves in conflict with one another. But space exploration more often than not calls to the best in us, harkening to a sense of optimism, of hope in the future, that can bolster us in dark times.

During his lecture, Lovell encouraged the next generation of scientists and engineers to jump in feet first, learn all that they can and follow their dreams. They could lead to the stars.

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Our view: Keep looking to the stars - Winston-Salem Journal