Stepping stones in the Long Dark

I am currently writing my term project for my course on SETI. In the course of my research, I'm plowing through old articles and research papers when I came across the fact that we imaged an extrasolar planet (i.e. a planet around another sun not our own) back in 2004. There's a nice understandable article with nifty pictures here.

Every now and then, I'm amazed by the march of scientific progress and the modern miracles we take for granted. I mean, we went from our first tentative steps towards powered flight at Kitty Hawk to picking up geological samples off our Moon in less than a century! Being a space aficionado (my sis prefers to use the alternate term of "nut") myself, I have a more in-depth knowledge of what challenges it took for the Americans to get a person to the Moon safely. What is even more astounding to me is that we, humankind, saw that as a species-wide achievement. All this in the depths of the Cold War no less! Truly, there is hope for us yet.

Now, we can take photos of other planets around other stars. Soon, assuming we don't return to another Dark Ages brought about by anti-science theocrats, we'll be sending people to these planets too. We will leave this cradle of humanity called Earth, people. Partly because the human spirit cannot be contained within just one planet. Partly because we're curious. Mostly because if we don't, our species will be stillborn and our cradle will be our coffin.

One of my kids wants to be the first man on Mars. I don't know when I can shift careers into astrophysics and I don't know if it will help. But I owe it to him to try! It is our greatest endeavour, one that will determine whether we last through the ages or if we are but a cosmic blip, here for but an unnoticeable moment and disappearing without a ripple. I am under no delusions of grandeur, that the contributions of a single woman of science will matter much in this era of inhuman supercomputers. But I intend to do my part, for whatever it's worth because when the day comes and we have someone landing on Mars, it is my ardent hope that we, all of humankind, will celebrate that as an achievement for all of us and not of just one nation.

Ultimately, in the Long Dark of space, we are one family living in the home that is Earth.