Maverick Astronauts

Space has forever been an interest of humans. From ancient times to today, the unknown of what's out there has intrigued generations. It only makes sense that astronauts have achieved a celebrity-like status in our society, this group of few who have ventured further away from the planet than most ever will. Public interest in space exploration has died off significantly since the 60s and 70s but that may be only a temporary problem.

Before the Moon had a flag on it, before any known modern day human had circumnavigated the globe from a few miles up, before a docking station was set up in space there was no face to associate space exploration with. Once John Glenn and Alan Shepard got up there and did their thing the public finally had someone to get behind and go along for the ride with. Heck, even Coco or Bongo or whatever that primate's name was who went up on trial runs made the front page.

Finding a face to get behind isn't the only thing the public needs to become interested in enough to pay attention. There has to be a mission. Something grand, something important, something cool and new that hasn't been done before. More importantly, there has to be a reason for the mission. The space race was a race against Russia and the competition surrounding that made a lot of people get behind the space agency. There was and adversary and a reason for success. These days there is no political reason (yet) to get to Mars first. There is talk of going back to the Moon but, even if Nasa does realize that goal, I don't see citizens getting behind the task as much as they did when Neil Armstrong and his crew blasted off.

I fear that the astronauts of the past are a breed gone for good. The tricky party is to now find a person or group of people who the public will surely get behind. Perhaps the space program should take a cue from what goes on in the political arena. They should look for someone who the public seems to like a great deal, at least enough to elect into office, someone who may have become famous in another line of work before having any political aspirations. They of course have to find someone with a look or personality unique to no other and they need to make sure that this person would be up to the physical challenge. Needless to say, this individual had to look good on camera.

By way of reasonable deduction the only person left to consider is Arnold Schwartzenegger. If he can't get the constitution changed so that he can run for president perhaps he would consider this line of work. I'm sure he could work out a deal with Nasa and get some real estate on the red planet, or perhaps, if he expresses disinterest, a few thousand acres can be dangled in front of him as aeronautic bate.

What does this say about society and the average citizen? I'd rather not think about that. In any case, it would at least be entertaining to see Terminator in Space. Perhaps James Cameron would be interested in going along for the ride with his Digital 8.

Check out more of Bruce's writings on everything from sustainable living to Blog Sidebars at The Big Desk.