Forget about terrestrial matters for a moment and think outside the blue planet.
Our American Spirit is stuck--and I'm not talking about that intangible dimension of our national identity that keeps us upbeat and confident in these "tough economic times." I mean that little multi-wheeled, remote-control land rover that's been combing the sands of Mars since 2004 in search of signs of life.
Actually, only some of its wheels are stuck in that red sand, and NASA engineers have been working feverishly for months to come up with a plan to free it. If they can't, Spirit faces an icy death, though its twin rover, Opportunity, is still exploring the Martian plain.
But Spirit's likely demise leaves the 10-year-old aspiring astronaut in me bereft. With the rover's mission complete, the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2010, and any further lunar or Martian exploration tabled, the American chapter of our human quest to head out into what Star Trek fans call "the final frontier" will have officially stalled. Human beings and their governments, it seems, have lost the will to fund anything interplanetary.
A BIG ditto to that! To read more, click here.