The other day I read an article where it was aid that NASA is taking Mars very seriously. They seems to have a timeline which is rigorously followed, and according to that schedule the first human trip is to take place in the late 2030s.
This is what made me think. The late 2030s are 2037, 2038 and 2039. At 2037 I will be 100 or 100+ years old and then on and on. The trip is to take about 500 days, that is another year and a half. So, what are the chances that I will be around to see a Mars landing? Probably slim to none. And this made me very sad. In today's time planning 20-30 or more years ahead is no big deal. No big deal for Abigail, but some of it is impossible for me and my friends.
Look at it like this, I can not get a 30 year mortgage. Banks know that I will not be around to see the end of it. I am at a very peculiar age. Impossible to plan for the future. When I buy some contraption and it comes with a lifetime warranty, I ask whose lifetime, the contraption or mine? Thinking about he future I ask, what future? For me next week is the future.
I know that a favorite question of human resource people of new job applicants is "where do you see yourself in five years?" If I were asked that question my answer would be: hopefully alive! And that is why I did not volunteer for the Mars mission.
Landing on Mars in late 2030s makes me very sad
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