I envy Chris Hadfield. I envy his five-month sojourn in space and the obvious delight he took in his job as commander of the orbiting laboratory, the International Space Station. But most of all I envy the perspective he has presumably gained, the acquired sense of awe.
Like many of my generation, the idea of space travel was a boyhood dream. We devoured books like Robert Heinlein鈥檚 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Isaac Asimov鈥檚 Foundation trilogy and Alfred Bester鈥檚 The Stars My Destination. We built models of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules. We spent paper-route earnings on Estes rockets. We idolized space-suited heroes.
I still remember camping at a Yukon lake on the weekend of July 20, 1969, and looking up into the night sky and seeing in my mind鈥檚 eye Apollo 11 parked on the Sea of Tranquility a quarter-of-a-million miles away. I imagined astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin looking out the lunar module window in stark wonder at their home planet hanging brightly above them.
I don鈥檛 know how Hadfield feels about his ventures, but I wouldn鈥檛 be surprised to hear they were revelatory. Since the beginning of the 鈥渟pace age鈥� 鈥� the Soviet Union鈥檚 orbiting of Sputnik I on Oct. 4, 1957 鈥� 500 earthlings have travelled into space (precise numbers depend on where you define the edge of space). For some the journey was life-changing. They were transformed by the sight of Earth, a fragile blue-green gem on the black velvet of the universe.
Many astronauts have testified to a profound shift in their world views after returning from space. 鈥淵ou can see Earth like a beautiful fragile Christmas-tree ornament hanging against the blackness of space,鈥� Jim Irwin, lunar module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission in 1971 and the eighth man to walk on the moon, wrote in his book To Rule the Night. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a feeling, a perception, I had never anticipated. And I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 blasphemous for me to say I felt I was seeing Earth with the eyes of God.鈥�
鈥淲hat I do remember is the awesome experience of recognizing the universe was not simply random happenstance 鈥� that there was something more operating than just chance,鈥� said Edgar Mitchell, who rode on Apollo 16 in 1971 and later founded an institution for the study of human consciousness.
I don鈥檛 want to suggest these astronauts鈥� 鈥渃osmic connection鈥� demonstrates empirical proof of a transcendent realm beyond the material world 鈥� how can you empirically demonstrate that which by definition is non-material? 鈥� but I have no doubt their experience provided our species with a spiritual nudge forward.
The scientific knowledge gained by space exploration is useful, of course (our environmental consciousness owes a great debt to the American and Russian space programs), but it鈥檚 the awareness that we live on an insignificant planet in an obscure solar system at the edge of a commonplace galaxy that provides us with the potential for spiritual knowledge.
As psychologist Albert Harrison wrote in his 2002 book, Spacefaring: The Human Dimension, 鈥渕any people believe that space exploration will help us grow psychologically and spiritually, perhaps offering us endless renewal on a never-ending frontier.鈥�
We first set sail on the cosmic sea more than 50 years ago. And during the era of Apollo and Soyuz, it looked like a new era of exploration was upon us. But then we seemed to hesitate in the face of the infinite.
Sure, the scientists and the engineers continued to splash around in the shallows of space 鈥� the delivery-van shuttles, space stations, the Hubble telescope, the robots to Mars, etc. 鈥� but the romance of the moon missions that had attracted public enthusiasm faded with budget cuts and political negligence. It鈥檚 been more than 40 years since we鈥檝e landed on the moon.
Why should we return? Because space travel is how we will extend human consciousness into the universe. Confronting the cosmos may seem to be a close encounter with our own insignificance, but we may also be the means by which the universe becomes conscious of itself. And that, I suggest, lends us some significance, if we dare seek to know.
Hadfield鈥檚 sojourn awakens our longing to know. He certainly attracted huge public interest (800,000 Twitter followers) and that, arguably, suggests a pent-up enthusiasm for space travel. And why not? As Albert Harrison observes, 鈥渇or each person who visits space, many more stand ready 鈥� And for everyone who applies to become a spacefarer, there must be scores who dream about visiting space.鈥�
Indeed, when explorers like Hadfield venture forth, they stir a new generation of little boys and girls to imagine new realms for the human spirit. I envy them.
听
Robert Sibley is an Ottawa Citizen columnist.
