- Life Beyond the Sun--Saturn
- Into the Darkness--Ice Worlds, which covers Uranus, Neptune, the former planet Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
- A Moment in the Sun--The Terrestrial Planets, which covers Mercury, Venus, and Mars and discusses them comparatively with Earth
The final two episodes deal with Jupiter, Earth and Mars, and I'm looking forward to seeing them.
Besides the wonder inspired by Cox's fascinating presentation of the planets in our solar system, I am in awe of all that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has accomplished since they started their space exploration program in 1958. Founded by President Dwight Eisenhower, this independent agency of the US federal government has delivered time and again, exploring the far reaches of our solar system and uncovering the secrets of the planets and the moons that orbit them.
But it is the daily lives of the NASA employees that interest me as well--the astronauts, astronomers, cosmologists, technicians, engineers, computer scientists, biologists, geologists--the team of scientists who work together to bring about the success of each space mission. There have been catastrophic failures from which they have learned, and moved on from. But the successes are brilliant and breathtaking, and I love watching the control room explode into joy and relief when a mission has been successful--when pictures are received from millions of miles away from Earth, when a spacecraft lands and begins to move about a planet's surface, or just when the rocket carrying these probes into space takes off successfully. When I think about what NASA has accomplished--the engineering feats necessary to land a spacecraft/probe on distant planets, or to orbit them for long periods of time--I am impressed with the attention to the minutest detail that has facilitated the gorgeous pictures taken by cameras that survive the harshest atmospheres and conditions. Because it is that attention to detail that defines science and real scientists. It is why a scientific career is not for everyone, but for those of us who have worked in science, we can attest to the fact that the success of any experiment lies in the well-planned details. The basic knowledge has to be there first, along with creativity and futuristic visions, and the combination of these leads to the discovery of new data and realities that further our knowledge and expand our ways of looking at things.
I am proud too of the politicians who envisioned this program for the USA. Despite the fact that it was part of our space race with the Russians during the Cold War era, it grew far beyond that into true scientific exploration. Little did the politicians know when NASA was established that men would actually walk on the moon, that motorized vehicles would traverse the surface of Mars, that spacecraft would travel out into the Kuiper Belt at the edge of our solar system. It boggles the mind, truly, to see what has been accomplished. Yes, it has been expensive, and there are those who would argue unnecessarily expensive, that the money could have been better spent on other things. Perhaps. But when I watch the public response to rocket lift-offs, to moon landings, to Mars landings, it tells me that it is worth the money. Because we are learning all the time, we are doing what man/woman is meant to do--explore his/her surroundings, question his/her origins, and ponder the meaning of life in general and his/her life in particular, on the one planet in our solar system that supports life as we know it. We are blessed each and every day to be able to wake up on a planet that provides all of the conditions we need to live. That by itself is awe-and -gratitude inspiring.
