Image: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during one of its final dives between Saturn and its innermost rings (source: NASA/JPL-Caltech — Public Domain)
Humanity has always wondered what is over the next hill, around the bend, on the other side of the river, or across the sea; and now we are finally at a point where our technology has caught up to our natural inclination and desire to ‘go and see for ourselves.’ (...)
We started off strong. A mere 66 years after the Wright brothers made their historic flight, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon. The 1969 landing on our nearest celestial neighbor marked a turning point in human history. No longer were we confined to the planet that gave us birth; we could step out and start to see for ourselves what wonders, treasures and challenges await us outside the borders of our first and still only home. Sadly, it was not to be. After the triumph of Apollo 11, only 6 more manned missions to the Moon took place; and in 1972 the last of the only 12 humans to have ever set foot on another world left and came home. We have yet to return. (...)
Now that finally seems to be changing.
