Science and Environment: Back to the Moon -- Vision.org

PASADENA, CA, Jul 14 (MARKET WIRE) --
More than one million people cheered the successful launch of NASA's
Lunar Recon Orbiter on June 18, 2009. While such attempts to include the
general public in our first small steps back to the moon are clever, they
pale in the greater message men placed on the surface of our nearest
neighbor 40 years ago: "We came in peace for all mankind." In July 1969,
hundreds of millions watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deliver that
message to the surface of the moon and take the first human steps beyond
our home planet. In the latest science and environment article series by
Vision.org titled, "From the Ground Up," contributing writer Dan Cloer
takes the reader through the last century of our exploration of the
universe from the origin of modern astronomy to the moon and beyond.

The history of humankind is told in our travels as well as the ironic
juxtapositions of coming in "peace" as the marker of winning the Cold War
"Space Race." Although our temporal and political aspirations wax and
wane, our will to explore the heavens reaches into our deeper desires and
sense of curiosity. The cosmos has always drawn us upward. The question of
whether or not the moon will become humanity's first stop in a much larger
quest remerges as we mark the fortieth anniversary of those first upward
steps.

"Like a child in a huge candy store, we wonder more about the contents of
the jars on the upper shelves than those close at hand. Thus we continue
to mentally wander and wonder at the vast universe that stretches ever
outward for billions of light-years," Cloer writes.

"Technological innovations now on the drawing board will give us even
better eyes to view the myriad galaxies and planets." Our ultimate
interest, Cloer notes, is to discover our place in the grand scheme of all
that exists. "Will we find another Earth? Maybe life is as common across
space as it is across this small planet."

In the next few weeks, the Vision.org special report "From the Ground Up"
will offer a look back at the development of our modern view of the
universe, what we have found and how we have found it. The series begins
with the manned space program and the "everyman" characteristics of those
who did the job, or as they said, "carried the mail." Other articles in
the series will cover the first U.S. astronaut Alan B. Shepard, a
biography of Neil Armstrong, an extensive review of the work of George
Ellery Hale, the builder of the past century's great telescopes that
remain a working legacy. The series will conclude with a review of Robert
Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman's new book "Biocentrism: How Life and
Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the
Universe." The writers suggest a new way of understanding our experience
of the universe.

About Vision

Vision.org is an online magazine with quarterly print issues that feature
in-depth coverage of current social issues, religion and the Bible,
history, family relationship topics and insights into philosophical,
moral and ethical issues in society today. For a free subscription to the
Vision quarterly magazine, visit their web site at http://www.vision.org.

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Contact
Edwin Stepp
Vision Media Productions
476 S. Marengo Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
Phone (24 hrs): 626 535-0444 ext 105
www.vision.org

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