Space Center!

Today we went to the space center down in Huntsville, AL. (It's AL, right? Because AK is Alaska and AR is Arkansas and ABBA is ABBA.)

Considering I found out we were going yesterday, I might not have gone had it not been a place I really wanted to go. That, and it's not that long of a car ride. Certainly not as long as it takes to get to Atlanta.

So, why would I want to go to the Space Center? Ever since I've known how to read, and perhaps even a little bit before, space has been a fascination of mine. Astronauts in their suits, floating through space, stepping across the Lunar surface picking up rocks, piloting a rocket to some distant planet or moon, engaging orbit, and rolling down the windows to collect space dust in my fingers as it trailed by. As I read more, I learned about nebulae, galaxies, stars of all different sizes, quasars, black holes, dark matter, antimatter, and all the other concepts that have collected in the hundred years after Jules Verne dreamed a rocket.

At one point, I wanted to be an astronaut. A scientist. They said that we would be the ones to land on the Moon again, the ones to land on Mars again. What a dream! I had no clue of what either job entailed, but the rewards of discovery would be more than enough.

But somewhere, I got it stuck in my head that I wouldn't be a scientist after all. I wouldn't work in a lab or sit in a dusty room doing calculations with a team of mathematicians. No, I would sit in a dusty room to read books, write about them, lecture about them, and teach them to others. The allure of literature caught me, and I wasn't content to just read some in my off time, because then I knew I'd never really get as into it as I like. I still loved math and science, but they became something to know of and respect, and not necessarily something to do active research in, at least not right now. And, as far as I know, they don't launch English graduate students into space.

After looking at the exhibits today, I hesitated. Just a little. Seeing the Saturn V rocket, the space shuttle, all the different equipment and testimonies from various rockets and scientists, and that little girl in the IMAX movie who wanted to be an astronaut too, it made me wonder. Now I've looked at the requirements; if I went back to college and finished my degree in mathematics, I could technically be one. The maximum height is only an inch above mine, but I could promise to duck. My vision isn't 20/20, but I could get it corrected with lasers. Either that, or I can wait (and hope) for the day that space tourism becomes viable and relatively inexpensive.

Maybe, but it's not something to wait for.

No, no, maybe there'll be no going into space for me, not for a while. But considering the small number of people that are able to go, and the astronomical costs of getting them into space, and given the path I've chosen, I can live with that. I still have my dreams, my fantasies, and lots of science fiction to console me. Even Jules Verne in all his dry glory.