My Letters to N.A.S.A.
When I was very young, long before email, internet, and Google, we had something called mail, a pencil and paper. Each Summer to start school vacation, I’d write a letter…
IN SPACE – OCTOBER 7: In this handout from National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, European Space Agency (EPA) astronaut Alexander Gerst, Expedition 41 flight engineer, uses a camera to make a photo of his helmet visor during a session of extravehicular activity (EVA) outside the International Space Station (ISS) October 7, 2017 in space. During the six-hour, 13-minute spacewalk, Gerst and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, flight engineer, worked outside the Quest airlock to relocate a failed cooling pump to external stowage and installed gear that provides back up power to external robotics equipment. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)
Photo by NASA via Getty ImagesWhen I was very young, long before email, internet, and Google, we had something called mail, a pencil and paper.
Each Summer to start school vacation, I'd write a letter to N.A.S.A. (using the thick-lined, yellow grammar school paper) and share how fascinated I was with their space program. I'd ask them to send me the latest photos of the N.A.S.A. rocket ships. About six weeks later, I would get a GIANT envelope in the mail with the beautiful N.A.S.A. logo in the upper left hand corner. Inside were at least five or six beautiful 8 x 10 color photos of the most recent space missions. One side was the beautiful color picture, the other side was a complete explanations of where in space the photo was taken, and what the mission was. (In later years, we'd call it a press kit.)
In this on-demand world where I can now Google these images in seconds, it was very special to know back then that someone at N.A.S.A. took the time to respond to this ten year old's letter and inspire his summers. It was a great lesson to learn that some great things are worth waiting for and when it arrives, it's even more special. While technology is ever changing and adds convenience and speed to our everyday life, some things are devalued by getting it on-demand, without the natural process of patience and anticipation.
Well I didn't become an astronaut, but I do love the concept of space exploration. As I just slammed the concept of on-demand, let me share with you a show that you can soon get on demand on Netflix. This past week alone, two people alerted me of a cool new show coming this April. It's a reboot of the 1960's television hit, Lost In Space.
The series followed a pioneering family of space colonists who struggle to survive in a strange and hostile universe after their ship is sabotaged by a paid off spy from another country looking to stop the successful United States space program. The ship is thrown off course. Out of millions of volunteers, the Robinson family was launched into space in the futuristic self-piloting Jupitor II spaceship, only to find themselves literally lost in space.
Irwin Allen, the original creator of the show was so ahead of his time creating the story in the 1960's that mirrors the hopes and goals of today's space programs like self-piloting spaceships, future colonization on other planets and the current infighting between world powers.
It's great to be a kid again.
