On October the 4th of 1957 the former Soviet Union shocked the Western world
by becoming the first to put a man made satellite into orbit around the
Earth. To further add insult to injury they put the first man into orbit in
April of 1961. Determined not to see the west fall behind President John F
Kennedy issued the immortal words "We choose to go to the moon and do the
other things not because they are easy - but because they are hard".
The race was on. It was a time in history where people weren't afraid to take bold steps.
It was a time when people weren't afraid to dream.
This dream became a reality on July 20th 1969 with Neil Armstrong's "One small step"
on the moon. For a short while the entire world was united as mankind had stepped foot on another heavenly
body. I was only a year and half when the first man landed on the moon so I don't
have recollection of it. In my early teens though I was inspired by that
time in history and by space travel in particular. I decide to pursue this
interest through the hobby of model rocketry. This here is a model rocket -
a replica of the first one I had as a boy- and is my show-and-tell item for
today. >.
When puberty hit chasing girls became more interesting than chasing paper
tubes down a windy field so I put my rockets away and eventually threw them
out. Years later I was married and had two sons of my own.
Determined to inspire my sons I decided that when the eldest turned 4 I
would buy him a model rocket kit for his birthday. So I took my two year
old down to the hobby store to pick one out. I hadn't been in a hobby store
in more than 20 years so I wasn't sure what to expect. Upon walking in I
heard the clerk tell a customer that the movie the 40 year old virgin hit
pretty close to home for him. After hearing that I knew I was in the right
place.
When my eldest opened his present he didn't know what to make of it. "It's
a model rocket", I said."It flies really high and a parachute pops out".
It's been a year and a half since that day and now both my sons love their
model rockets. If you go to YouTube and type in "Canadian Rocket Society"
the first video that pops up will be one from one of our model rocket
launches this past summer.
To further our sons interest in science and technology my wife and I took
them to the biggest rocket launch there is. The Space Shuttle. In June of
this year we packed up the car and headed south for a trip to Florida and
the Kennedy Space Centre. On launch day the weather was beautiful. Our
sons were happy and excited. Looking around me I could see people of all
ages, from different cultures, from different countries, speaking different
languages. It was truly an international scene.
There was a collective tension in the crowd as the countdown approached
zero. Finally flames started to billow out of the bottom of the shuttle
boosters and Atlantis was off. There were tears in the eyes of some as the
flame rose higher and higher into the sky carrying with it seven brave
people into the clouds and beyond. For a little while it looked as though
you could reach up and touch outer space yourself. As we walked back to the
car I looked at my sons - carrying their toy rockets. They weren't babies
any more. I began to feel a little sad thinking about how finite the
moments with our loved ones actually are.
How fleeting time is. As we pulled out of the parking lot and past the
rockets on display I began to think about the future. I hope that I've
given my sons the courage to dare to dream. Towards the end of the next
decade both the Chinese and the Americans will return mankind to the surface
of the moon. In the decade that follows that people will be walking on the
surface of Mars. One of the main issues we face on Earth is our lack of
pollution free infinite energy.
On the moon there exists silicone in abundance that can be used to create
giant solar panels that circle the Earth and transmit power back down to the
ground.
Maybe one day my sons will be part of in the space program. Maybe they will
help people get to Mars.
Maybe once we are there we will look back at the little speck in the sky
known as planet Earth and realize just how foolish we've been in how we have
been treating her. And how foolish we've been in how we treat each other.
And maybe, just maybe once and for all we will be united just as we were for
that short time in July of 1969.
