 | Marisa Honomichl is Vice President of Marketing and Development at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson. The Cosmosphere houses one of the largest collections of space artifacts in the world including the Apollo 13 space capsule. The mission of the Cosmosphere is “Honoring the Past and Inspiring the Future of Space Exploration.” This is accomplished through educational programming such as space exploration camps for students in the summer. Feel free to contact the Cosmosphere for more information on their camps and programming at (800)397-0330 or visit www.cosmo.org. |
Science
1969-12-31 18:00:00
It will take another “stretch”
Question: What do you see in the coming years in space exploration?
Answer: Every time I tour a group through the Cosmosphere Hall of Space museum, I am inspired. What a huge stretch was made by such a large group of people. This was done during a time in our history when it was very difficult to do so. Consider all the upheaval that was going on in our country in the 60’s, a war, race riots, and people generally growing distrustful of our government and its decisions? There were so many big issues to focus on at the time, yet they chose to make a huge commitment individually and as a whole.
It was a huge leap of faith as well as commitment. President Kennedy said to our country and to the world that America would put a man on the moon and bring him safely back home. We had more rockets blowing up on the launch pad than not, we were behind the Russians in our pursuit of space exploration both technologically and in terms of experience. We clearly had a lot of other big issues on our plate as a country. Regardless, the President, NASA, hundreds of corporations and thousands of individuals took that leap. With no guarantees of success and the assurance that every failure would be occurring in front of the entire world, literally, they forged ahead.
When I explain to visitors that these spacecraft had less computing power than most cell phones today, and they look into the capsules and see a compartment with an interior smaller than an elevator, I think they appreciate just how amazing an accomplishment this really was. It was so amazing that no other country has repeated it in the 40 years since our first landing. For a moment in time, the whole world looked up from their fighting, their misery and their hate and just said “wow”, and for the forty years since, we look back and still say it.
Even the Astronauts, who became the stars of this endeavor, were surprised by the global response to men landing on the moon. They expected Americans to be proud of the accomplishment but they didn’t expect that the world would see this not just as an American accomplishment but one of mankind reaching a goal that had been only a dream since man first gazed up at the moon.
My hope for the coming New Year is that our country finds a way to make a stretch. The goal could be Mars or some other pursuit but regardless, it should be grand enough to make the world stop again and feel good about what humans can accomplish when individuals push themselves, put aside their differences and work together toward a lofty goal. Astronaut Michael Collins said, “It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really; it’s an imperative.”
What will your stretch be? If we are determined, if we’re brave, if we work hard and join together…it could be WOW again.
