We choose to go to the moon...

...not because [it is] easy, but because [it is] hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win. - JFK (altered slightly)

We made it to NASA today, and I went completely star-struck. For the first time in my life, I went "damn tourist" on HD, handed him my camera, and requested he takes my photo with the VAB (vehicle assembly building) in the background, and a second one, with the Apollo space capsule.

For about 5 years after I saw Apollo 13 in 1995, I steadily dieted on every book and film pertaining to space exploration. Starting with "The Right Stuff", followed by Chuck Yeager's biography to get the story straight; Lovell's "The Lost Moon", followed by Gene Kranz's "Failure Is Not An Option" to get the full story, and countless others. Tom Hanks' film series "From the Earth to the Moon" became my soap opera of choice. Seeing bits of all this in real life was a very powerful experience.

NASA lays on propaganda thick at the Kennedy Space Center. All presentations emphasize the benefits of space-related research for the terrestrial pursuits: robotic arms designed for space exploration make the most precise surgical aids in operating rooms; the fabrics and other materials, satellites and telescopes useful in other life-saving and life-enhancing circumstances. While I appreciate the efforts, a question begs to be asked: couldn't we develop these things without spending billions on sending people and machines into space and onto other celestial bodies? And another thing: malaria nets don't require space-age fabric to do their job. Is there a way to distribute the funds, so that space gets explored while the low-tech needs are met down here?

Don't get me wrong. I do want to know what's out there, and how it all works. I just wonder sometimes if there really is a way to do it all - have the moon (pie) and eat it, too.