After many years on my feet the question ‘Why?’ still seems to trouble people. Some find it hard to understand, even after an explanation is given. Let me begin by saying that I’m an adventurer, not an explorer. Explorers create maps, adventurers follow those maps. Exploration and adventure are both manifestations of the human spirit. We are curious creatures and that’s key to our survival. What I find interesting is the fact people question why man needs to explore at all? Why summit that mountain? Why manned space exploration?
The spirit of exploration unifies humankind at a very basic level. As with individuals, when cultures and societies broaden their horizons it provides vision, direction and unity of effort. Exploration provides and empowers us with the knowledge, wisdom and understanding we need in our personal lives and as a society. Exploration is a precursor and enables science. Some of the greatest human stories and discoveries throughout history are tales of exploration and adventure - it defines who we are. I believe the next generation of great explorers will take the unprecedented step of elevating mankind to that of an interplanetary species.
Exploration is synonymous with what it means to be human. It drives our natural expansion and needs, be it for water or food, land on which to build homes, or fuel to power cities.
I believe humanity has no greater purpose than to embrace and sanctify this noblest of human activities. It is a core component of our complex nature. Without it we grind to a halt, our spirit dwindles, and we stagnate. We are an evolving moving system within a larger moving evolving system called the universe. To keep pace with this natural expansion we must push aggressively towards the next horizon. With every victory and every goal achieved will come new knowledge and understanding.
Many question the need for human space exploration, or large projects like particle accelerators. They query the cost of such endeavours. After all, considering everything else we are dealing with, do we not have more urgent priorities? The question should be what would we gain by cancelling space exploration. Saved funding would simply be dissipated. Among the many technical innovations gained through such endeavours there are the less understood payoffs -- the most significant being the inspiration of future generations of engineers and scientists. After the moon landings thousands of children were inspired to follow dreams of rocket ships and space exploration. They became the engineers and scientists that today solve many of our greatest challenges, rid us of deadly diseases and open doors into the most incredible understanding of our universe. It is they, that hopefully within our lifetime, will find a cure for cancer and AIDs.
Our stormy horizon should be fair warning. Over the next 50 to 100 years we know humanity will transcend a barrage of demanding challenges: environmental degradation, population change, dwindling resources and international peace and security to name a few. To face these challenges our children will need new beacons of hope, something positive to focus on. In other words, a sign of better times to come.
As our crowded planet, dominated by superstition based ideologies, fights tooth and claw over dwindling resources, our children will need examples that demonstrate that a unity of effort is feasible, achievable and provides results. The undeniable lessons learned when an international team steps foot for the first time on another world for example. This demonstration of humanity's cooperative capabilities and achievement is lost on no one. Today our big dreams tend to be international efforts as they are too large for any single nation. The international space station, CERN's LHC, even the Human Genome Project - a cooperative concept, when realized, will be worth its weight in gold. These are all examples of Humankind-based projects that are at the very forefront of humanity's effort, the cutting edge! The tip of humanity’s spear.
