By Chris Brock

When I first saw the late Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 science fiction art film classic “2001: A Space Odyssey,” I was amazed and awestruck by the way the film depicted a future where we would have a colony on the Moon by 1999, and a manned space flight to Jupiter would begin in 2001 AD. I was also amazed and awestruck by the technology depicted in the film. Computers with artificial intelligence capacity, space stations in high Earth orbit, and routine shuttle flights to them like any normal commercial airline. In 1975, when I first viewed the British science fiction series Space:1999, I was awestruck and amazed in the same way that I was with 2001: A Space Odyssey. A colony on the moon built in 1983, inaugurated in 1988, and fully operational in 1999. It was a future beyond belief. Most of all, a future that was described by critics as fantastic. As fantastic as the one created for the 1979 NBC miniseries adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. Now, we have arrived at 2001. The first year of the new millennium, and the 21st Century. In a shocking way, the future depicted in those three British productions have not come to pass. While some elements of science and technology have advanced further, and a new space station is actually being built in orbit above us, the human race is no where nearer to those three possible futures than it was in the 1970s.

The question is, what went wrong? Well, I can give you two straightforward answers. The Vietnam War and political shortsightedness. Originally, after Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in July of 1969, there were plans to progress further and further into space. Plans were drawn up for a colony on the moon, and an expedition to Mars by 1983, or by1988 at the latest. However, there were those in Congress who felt we had proven western technology had triumphed over the then Soviet Union, by beating them to the moon. Because of that mentality, and the spending of billions of tax dollars in a war we had no business being involved in, corners were cut, and budgets were lowered. Richard Nixon was not interested in John F. KennedyÍs space legacies. As a result, the space shuttle was designed in order to please the public and those in the government. From 1975 to 1981, not a single NASA astronaut was launched into space. As British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke pointed out, great strides in space exploration were still being taken by computerized space probes, but in essence, the space age seemed to have come to a great halt. The glory days of NASA were definitely over. And if to add more insult to injury, the disaster of the Challenger in 1986 caused more criticism for NASA. After that, the space shuttle became nothing more than a program that dealt with hauling military hardware into low earth orbit. What was soon depicted in the 1977 film Capricorn One, the government and the public wondered if NASA was worth spending so much currency on. They even stated that we should focus on problems on Earth than pay attention to space. I think we should continue to focus on space. What the public and the politically-motivated administrators in the White House do not realize is that problems on Earth can definitely be solved by continuing with space exploration. Like I have stated to my girlfriend on many occasions, science fiction writers Ben Bova, Homer H. Hickham, Jr., and even actor Kevin Bacon have stated that NASA can very well help this planet and try to make it a better place. They have also stated that our own solar system has a wealth of natural resources that could clean up this world and help as well. It could also help the planet on the science and technology front, and to some extent, the political and social knowledge front as well. Such perseverance could end this worldwide epidemic of cynicism and make those three possible futures become reality. That is assuming if the petty bureaucrats, Machiavellian politicians, and the public get over their arrogance and closed-mindedness on this issue. But, that’s my opinion. What’s yours?

Christopher Brock is a junior communications major and a columnist for The Louisville Cardinal.