No lo digo yo -aunque estoy de acuerdo y hago de cheerleader- sino James van Allen… sí, ése Allen. Leyendo los extractos de sus declaraciones, parece que lo ha clavado:
«Almost all of the space program’s important advances in scientific knowledge have been accomplished by hundreds of robotic spacecraft in orbit about Earth and on missions to the distant planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune,» van Allen writes. Similarly, robotic exploration of comets and asteroids «has truly revolutionized our knowledge of the solar system,» he adds.
Y destaca un único motivo para seguir obsesionados con el viaje espacial tripulado es la «ideología de la aventura».
Van Allen comments that «the only surviving motivation for continuing human spaceflight is the ideology of adventure.»
At the end of the day, van Allen concludes: «I ask myself whether the huge national commitment of technical talent to human spaceflight and the ever-present potential for the loss of precious human life are really justifiable.»
«Let us not obfuscate the issue with false analogies to Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and Lewis and Clark, or with visions of establishing a pleasant tourist resort on the planet Mars,» van Allen suggests.
En resumen, que hemos leído demasiada ciencia ficción.
Por cierto, me acuerdo de aquello de Bruce Sterling sobre Marte y el desierto del Gobi.