Limelight: Man's greatest adventure By Lubna Abdel-Aziz There it is, and there it has always been---the mystery of space. It came into existence, approximately 13.7 billion years ago, according to the Big Bang theory, and has remained thus, immense, immortal, infinite! With its one burning Sun by day, and its billion twinkling stars by night, it has forever baffled and bewildered, arousing man's curiosity, stirring his imagination, triggering a trillion unanswered questions. What lies beyond that immeasurable vastitude, which continues in all directions, with no known limits? Obedient to a force within, man always attempted to explore the unknown. During the 20th century, man embarked on his greatest adventure---- exploring space. Where does Space begin? Hovering over our planet, it often seems reachable, touchable, but it is much farther than it seems. Space begins where the Earth's atmosphere, (air) is too thin to affect objects moving through it. The higher we get above the Earth, the air becomes thinner and thinner. Little by little the atmosphere fades into almost nothing. That is when Space begins. It is said to begin about 160 kilometres above the earth. From there onwards, the air differs from the air we know, consisting mainly of widely scattered atoms and molecules of gas and radiation. As we approach the moon, earth's gravity becomes weaker, moon's gravity becomes stronger. The distance is about 1.600,000 kilometres . Man has traveled there and beyond, and has answered many of his questions about the universe. One eternal question still remains unanswered---Are we alone? Does life as we know it exist elsewhere in space? Last week, April 12, the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of man's first space flight (1961). It was the destiny of one small man, almost dwarfish in size, only 157 centimetres tall, to be the first human in space. With an engaging smile and a mix of bravado and modesty, Yuri Gagarin climbed into his tiny Vostok spacecraft. A blazing orange flame lifted his rocket out of sight, into the silence and solitude of space. He made a single orbit around the earth, and rose to a lofty metaphysical plane of legendary proportions. The world was awe-struck by the achievement of one Russian cosmonaut, who did what no man had done before, who went were no man had been before. A month later, Alan Shepherd made a 15 minute space flight. A year later, John Glenn Jr. made 3 revolutions around the earth. Both were US astronaut. Thus began the Space race. The world went 'gaga' over Gagarin on April 12. Calling it "Yuri's Night", 71 countries joined Russia in celebration of the 50th birthday of Yuri's historic journey. Even Iran joined the celebration wearing Gagarin T-shirts, lapel pins, embroidered insignias, and temporary tattoos. The Russian cosmonaut's flight turned out to be his apocalypse. He died 7 years later in a plane crash, while on a routine flight mission. Space exploration started long before the 20th century. It goes back to pre-historic myths and tales of fantastic voyages and adventures. In every ancient culture, gods and goddesses, supernatural creatures and wonders existed out there, up there. The Greek writer Lucian of Samosata, wrote his famous description of trips to the moon in "Icaromennippus" and "The True History" in the AD 100s. In 1903, Russian schoolteacher Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky published the first scientific paper on the use of rockets for space flight. In 1910, American Robert H. Goddard, explained how rockets could be used to the upper atmosphere. In 1923, German Hamann Oberth described what a spaceship would be like. This led to the formation of the German Society for Space Travel. They developed the first successful guided missiles in WWII. After the war, some German scientists went to the US and others went to Russia. The Space race came to an end, when the US and Russia cooperated in 1975 in a joint space mission. It was John Kennedy whose inspiring words sent the first man to the moon, (Neil Armstrong, July 20,1969). The Obama administration has practically halted the advancement of space flights, leaving Russia to go it alone Long before the modern space age of the 20th century came to be, it existed in man's imagination .Many science fiction writers have predicted the forms of rockets and space ships, creatures from other planets, voyages under the sea, or above the blue sky. Filmmakers opened a Pandora's box when they discovered the works of Jules Verne, H.G.Wells, Karel Capek, Isaac Asimov, Eugene Zamiatin and added their own Star Wars and ETs among others. Another race was triggered between science and science fiction, which at present, has come to a draw. There seems to be no limit to man's imagination, or man's appetite for exploration. Has Science limited our imagination, with its bare, cold facts, or has it presented us with new challenges? The Space Age has created new careers, new industries, new technologies and new research on what is known as space medicine. Where would we be without our satellites, our mobile telephones, our You Tubes and Face books? How many more would have lost their lives in floods, hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes if weather science was not able to warn us? These advances are all products of our space age. In gaining some things, however, we may have lost many others. I still prefer gazing at the man in the moon, and wondering if he is smiling back at me? The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them. -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)
