Why go to space? What possible benefit can there be? Werner Von Braun said the following at the end of the 60’s:<\/p>\n
\nDuring the Renaissance, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
\nestablished in his seaside castle of Sagres the closest precedent to
\nwhat NASA is trying to accomplish in our time. He systematically
\ncollected maps, ship designs, and navigational instruments from all over
\nthe world. He attracted Portugal’s most experienced mariners. He laid
\nout a step-by-step program aimed at the exploration of Africa’s Atlantic
\ncoast and the discovery of Africa’s southernmost tip, which he knew had
\nto be circumnavigated if India were to be reached by the sea. With equal
\ndetermination he pushed for the possibly shorter west-bound route to the
\nFar East. Prince Henry trained the astronauts of his time, men like
\nFerdinand Magellan and Vasco de Gama, and he created the exploratory
\nenvironment that launched Columbus from neighboring Spain on his
\nhistoric voyage.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nSelf-centered medieval Europe was subsequently turned into an outgoing,
\nexploring and expanding continent. England became a different place
\nafter men like Sir Francis Drake or Sir Walter Raleigh followed in the
\nfootsteps of the Portuguese and Spanish navigators. As a direct result
\nof an age of exploration that opened their eyes and revamped their
\nstandards, Europeans and their American off-spring have ever since led
\nthe world in intellectual dynamism.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nHenry the Navigator would have been hard put had he been requested to
\njustify his actions on a rational basis, or to predict the pay-off or
\ncost-effectiveness of his program of exploration. He committed an act of
\nfaith and the world became richer and more beautiful as a result of his
\nprogram. Exploration of space is the challenge of our day. If we
\ncontinue to put our faith in it and pursue it, it will reward us handsomely.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why go to space? What possible benefit can there be? Werner Von Braun said the following at the end of the 60’s: During the Renaissance, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal established in his seaside castle of Sagres the closest precedent to what NASA is trying to accomplish in our time. He systematically collected maps, … Continue reading “Why go?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}