Space... the final frontier

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies, were all made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff."
~ Source: Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Though no man should know where from his dreams come, for it spoils the mystery, he has persisted with this one dream and wondered about the infinite meadows of heaven where, one by one, silently, blossom the lovely stars: the forget-me-nots of the angels. Space to humans, is as eternity is to time. Space has existed in the collective subconscious of humanity since the dawn of awareness; and man finds every cubic inch of it, a miracle.

From time immemorial, man has watched the stars in astonishment and awe. He has found that the universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful. He even believes that the stars shape our ends, and ascribes to heavens and the fated sky, the designs of his life. Thus, it is no surprise that man has always felt, the urge to conquer the sky and what lies beyond.

Through hardships to the stars has been his dream, his lust: to wander in space, to touch the stars, and meet new life. To explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilisations; to boldly go forth without fear, where no one has gone before. These may not be the need of the many, but it does outweigh the needs of the few.

Given the current level of man's knowledge, it may seem impossible; but things are only impossible until they are not. Once man eliminates the impossible, whatever remains, and however improbable, will become the solution.

Yes; man will invade space, assimilate entire worlds, adopt new philosophies, new ways of life; but in time. The question is when; and not, will he? Fools may not have fear, but the fearless are no fools; and they fear not to dream. They know that those who are fearful of the night have not loved the stars fondly. For me, the sky is the ultimate art gallery; just above us, ever-present to gaze and wonder. I have touched the stars in my dreams.

I have traversed the beyond, touched Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, embarked on that journey in to the remote out reaches of the universe, and fondled and frolicked with new life: call it flights of, fancy, ingenuity, insight, inspiration, or imagination; but a journey it had been of vision.

I am on a journey to discover whatever we are. To rise from earth, to open the gates of heaven; to be able to contemplate the billions of factors in precise and beautiful combination, that makes human existence possible; to be able to dwell on an encounter of the human brain and spirit with the universe: all of that enlarges the human horizon. To know of galaxies so far away that their light has taken billions of years to reach us is actually to see the past.

It is nothing but a mysterious transaction between the infinity of the soul and the infinity of the universe. Therefore, a sense of the unknown has always lured me; and the greatest of the unknowns of today is outer space.

To confine my attention to terrestrial matters would be, to limit the human spirit. Conquest of space offers the greatest reward: none less than a universe. We may all be in the gutter, but some of us are reaching for the stars.

No matter where I go, there I am; and beyond is a surreal voyage bridging the gap between reality and imagination. To travel through the inner depths of the human psyche to the outer reaches of the universe in flights of imagination; and explore the worlds that may exist in alternate dimensions or only in the minds of the world's leading minds, is an experience in imagination.

We owe our existence to stars; because they make the atoms of which we are formed. Unknowingly, we plough the dust of stars, blown about us by the wind, and drink the universe in a glass of rain.

Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash, and fade. Worlds do not last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust; but imagination is immortal and eternal in the minds of men. Imagination and fantasy are necessary ingredients for living; they are the preview of, life's coming.

That is why, I suppose, Albert Einstein, Nobel Laureate, one of the pillars of physics and quantum mechanics said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

Sometimes the crazy are not crazy; they just have another consciousness in their brain, which becomes the compelling urge, the thrust of curiosity, for some men to go where no man has gone before. Most of the surface of the earth, and the depths of the seas have been explored.

Hence, space, as of now, is his final frontier. Thus, the thrust of curiosity propels man on, and turns him towards outer space, his next objective: that bewitching void we think as empty space, yet bubbling with life. In space, there are no firm boundaries as to where space begins or ends. Its immensity evades even our imagination.

To us humans, outer space represents a challenging environment for exploration. Man has gazed the stars, ridden the rockets, and walked the moon; but intergalactic space has eluded him.

Intergalactic space takes up most of the volume of the Universe, and though galaxies and star systems consist almost entirely of empty space; we still lack the technology for galactic travel to conquer it. Space may seem empty, but it is full of energy: tangible and intangible.

There is gravity, the chains of force that tie us to this planet. There is heat, wind, sound, but not of the same kind with which we are familiar. There is also 'dark energy' that is supposedly pushing the universe apart at incredible speed. We are yet to know fully, what this dark energy is, though some say it is not energy at all.

We do not yet know what is responsible for the dark-energy whose presence we infer from the accelerating universe; and it may be quite a while before we understand it.

Most of us have a fleeting familiarity and understanding of the word 'matter'. Matter of fact, there are all kinds of matter; but it would be too confusing to the average reader to go deep into the subject. Suffice it to understand that the universe contains matter, as does the earth. There is also dark matter, not the dark matters that goes on, on earth about which most of us are familiar; but the dark matter of space about which we know very little.

Experiments may bring us new insights; but we do not know as to when. If I have mentioned all of this apparently confusing details to the average reader, it is only to show them the immensity of the task ahead. However, to go places and do things never done before is what living is all about.

The greatest gain from space travel consists in the extension of our knowledge. In a hundred years, this newly won knowledge will pay huge and unexpected dividends.

Looking at these stars, dwarf my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I keep thinking of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements: out of the unknown past into the unknown future. It makes me glad of life.

It gives me a chance to love and to work, and to play and to keep gazing at the stars. The sky is the daily bread of my eyes; and contemplation of celestial things will make me both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when I descend to human affairs. Thus, to you: be humble, for you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars.

After all, if the sun with all its life giving power can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do; and yet, leaves on space, no shade, no scars, no trace of age, no fear to die; it is because everything in space obeys the laws of nature. If you know these laws, obey them: space will treat you kindly. It is from there, all your inspirations come.

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