With President Bush's Mars initiative freshly plopped on the
table, we can prepare for the usual cannonade of reasons for and
against. Against is easy. "With a deficit looming, we can't afford
it." "It isn't necessary, a waste of money." "Another boondoggle
for the military-industrial complex." "Why the moon first? We've
been here, done that."
For is tougher. "There could be life there." "There could be the
ingredients for life there." "We need a challenge that doesn't
involve killing our fellow man." "The budget will be a tonic for
the economy." "Moon first 'cause it makes heavy launches for Mars
more practical." "The spin-offs from such enterprises are
valuable." "Because."
I commend that last reason in the affirmative column. "Because."
Disarmingly simple. But ineluctably complex. It embraces our
primordial reason for doing everything. Because we conceived of
it.
Any of the negatives carries some weight. Of course we can't
afford it. We couldn't afford the 30-billion or so it cost to get
to the moon. We can't afford to pay farmers for not tilling,
dropouts for not trying, teenagers for not caring. Eighty-seven
billion to fix what we broke in Iraq? On a strict cost-accounting
basis we can't afford to do half the things we cheerfully pony up
for; add the morality factor and the affordability gets more
formidable. But back there in our communal cortex is the suspicion
that we are intuited somehow to reach out; to strive, to seek, to
find, and not to yield. The conscription call of Tennyson's
"Ulysses" speaks to all of us.
The practical will give us a list of spinoffs from the space
race as we used to call it ranging from pacemakers to Onstar. The
greatest invention of the last half-century may have been velcro,
but what the heck. The greatest possible discovery a human Mars
exploration may yield is -- nothing at all. And this intuitive
creature living in its bath of oxygen will make much of that
nothing. If there is no life, no chance of its ever having been
there, a part of us will extrapolate a caring God. See? We
are alone. We areunique. And we owe it to
ourselves and to a caring Creator to be mindful, grateful, caring,
and humble.
Another more cynical part will say, "Let's press on. The chances
of a world like ours, with all of life's ingredients, are very good
out in, say, galaxy x. We haven't begun to scratch the surface of
the search."
Ah, but if some squiggle of something is found in Martian rock,
some remnant of a past sentient thing, then stand by. This is what
many in the scientific and social community wish for: the chance to
say, "See? It could have happened anywhere. It would have happened
there on Mars had not the solar wind come up, or a flare of
something put it out before it could get going. We aren't so
special . Given the right conditions, we can crop up anywhere." And
a host of instincts proscribed by centuries of self-regard and,
yes, religion, are set loose.
There is something for everyone in the Moon-Mars missions. For
the philosophers, another argument, pro or con. For industry allied
with science, another Apollo-like beneficence. For the first person
out of the Mars lander, a chance not to muff his lines. For most of
us, a chance to see triumphant headlines once again, to reflect on
the wonder of living in such a time.
And for at least one of us, the chance to trot out an old as yet
unused headline:
"SCIENTISTS IN PASADENA DISCOVER LIFE IN GLENDALE"
Oh, brave new world.
topics:
Religion, Military, Iraq
