Short Essay, F.L. Gonzalez

"... where man has gone before."

Those who know me well know I'm all about space and astronomy, but NASA's 2.5 billion dollar bill for the Curiosity mission is staggering in view of our damaged economy and local & global social need. Perhaps a mission nicknamed "Imagine" might have been better named. What do we need answers about? We already know that the physics of the universe is the same everywhere. We have found amino acids in asteroids, and even created them in the laboratory under conditions that mimicked the early Earth. Why do we need to prove what we already believe? The answers we seek then may have nothing to do with science. It may have to do with our doubts about the makeup of reality -- about our own human ambiguity and self-doubt. Are we then trying to counter the opinions we have heard that tell us that the Earth is God's unique place, and we dare not question. If that's the case no definitive answer will ever satisfy us. Some will say that any microbes found on Mars were the result of early collisions with asteroids -- that life on Mars was borrowed. And if the DNA is different, it simply adjusted over time. And sadly, over time as well, our resolve will dwindle until we spend more billions on another whim. Where next, Europa? Titan? I propose a trip into our wounded minds instead -- to search the root of our self-defeating ambivalence.

F.L. Gonzalez

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