Why Do I Love Space?

Hello, friends!

This is my first “real” post here on my new blog.  The main message I’m hoping to convey with this new blog is, quite frankly, right there in the title: I Love Space!  If you’re still wondering how I feel about space, then… I don’t know what else to do.  I don’t know how to make my feelings for space any clearer.  However, the title of this blog does raise another question that I think is worth talking about.  Sure, I love space.  But why do I love space?

I think everyone will understand what I mean when I say space represents the future.  This “space equals the future” idea has been part of the zeitgeist for a long time now.  I can’t say what, precisely, our future in space will look like.  Will there be humans on Mars?  Face-to-face contact with extraterrestrials?  Fleets of starships exploring the Orion Nebula?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Perhaps the work of exploring space, gathering resources from space, and defending our planet from space-based threats (like asteroids and comets) will be left to machines while we humans remain safe and comfortable here on the ground.

Either way, I do believe space will be a big part of our future.  That’s always in the back of my mind whenever I look up at the stars.  That’s always in the back of my mind whenever I learn a new space fact (like the many space facts I hope to share with you, dear reader, on this blog).  It’s in the back of my mind whenever anything even remotely space-related comes up in conversation.  Space isn’t just an empty void.  The other planets aren’t just barren rocks or giant gas balls.  These things represent our future as a species, our future as a civilization.

Given the state of the world today, it’s easy to lose hope.  It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the problems and conflicts of the present that we lose sight of the future.  Reading the news these days fills me with a sense of hopelessness.  And that, my friends, is why I love space.  I love space because no matter how bad things get here on Earth, space always reminds me that there is still a future to look forward to, a future worth living for, a future worth fighting for.

And so that is what space means to me.  It represents the future—but even more than that, it represents hope.  Every single one of us needs to find hope in something.  I find my hope up there, among the planets and stars.  Where do you find yours?