Moon: BEYOND THE MOON: NO END

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The history of technology teaches us that the right tool always arrives at the right time; witness how the transistor was ready when the space age dawned. The cycle may be beginning again, leading to feats of astronomical engineering as inconceivable to us as televising would have been to the Victorians. Whatever technologies the future may bring, the doors of heaven are now opening; this is the central fact of our age.

Those who are—understandably—obsessed with the urgent problems of today, aim at the wrong target when they attack the space program. They say the money would be better spent on the ghettos or the hungry, especially with so much already going to the Viet Nam war. That the money would in fact be spent in such a way is, at best, debatable. Moreover, cost effectiveness is not a criticism that can or should be applied to advanced technology. Who would have put money on atomic energy in 1940? A nation which concentrates on the present will have no future; in statesmanship, as in everyday life, wisdom lies in the right division of resources between today's demands and tomorrow's needs.

The Real Promise

There is always the fear, of course, that men will carry the curse of their animosities into space. But it is more likely that in the long run, those who go out to the stars will leave behind the barriers of nation and race that divide them now. There is a hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags will not wave in a vacuum; our present tribal conflicts cannot be sustained in the hostile environment of space. Whether we like it or not, our children will find new loyalties when they set foot on the moon, or Mars, or the satellites of the giant planets. They did so in these United States a hundred years ago; they will do so on the United Planets in the centuries to come.

And this is the real promise of space exploration—the reason why it appeals so strongly to the young in heart. The Frontier, which only a generation ago seemed lost forever, is open again. And this time it will never close.