Space,The Final Frontier

This month mankind will make 50 years of space flight. On April 12th, 1961 a man called Yuri Gagarine, went to space making all human race cross that last border, the other side, the universe awaiting to be discovered and explored.

But where are we know? How far have we gone?

Since that day we went far, far as the endings of our solar system. As you read this lines, Voyager 1  is more than 10,843,294,886 miles or about 0.00183 of a light-year from the Sun. We went to Mars and visit its plains, we watched fascinated Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Voyegars photos of the giant solar planets of our solar system, Venus and its acid rains, recently we discovered that Saturn moon Titan has components essencial to live appear.

We visit all the planets of our solar system, and we have other missions ready to go and visit some again. Juno will go to Jupiter, with the primary goal to significantly improve our understanding of the formation and structure of Jupiter. Its currently planned to be launched in August 2011 and will travel towards Jupiter after an Earth fly-by in October 2013 to provide a gravity assist.

We went far , but what are the next steps?

Its difficult to say, without international cooperation, and the present economical and financial situation around the world, going for Mars or even going  back to the moon seems difficult , and not any time soon.

An example of cooperation, and how its essencial to make us achieve the goal of exploring the universe, is the International Space Station, the largest human-built structure ever constructed in space, and is the product of cooperation between five different space agencies representing 15 countries, NASA and its partners plan to keep the space station operating through at least 2020.

Many say thats ISS is the key to send man to Mars, like recently stated by NASA administrator Charlie Bolden,  "The International Space Station is the centerpiece for our human exploration and our spaceflight endeavors in the coming decade," Bolden said. "I like to say it's our anchor for the future of human exploration. The station is our start to the journey outward."

But we will have to go to Mars and beyond, as Soviet Russian rocket scientist and pioneer of cosmonautics , Konstantin Tsiolkovsky said, A « planet is the cradle of man, but one cannot live in a cradle forever» . I believe our antecesters  assume the  erect position  so we can see and be amazed by the stars,. Its our purpose as a specie, to understand the universe and understand why we are here.

If we overcome our differences and learn to live as a species on the same planet we may have a chance one day start a journey log saying , «this are the stellar voyages of ...».  Untill that day we have much work to do.

Sérgio Sousa, DailyCosmicNews