Imagination…one of the attributes that sets man apart from the beasts.
When I was a kid I used to wonder what the future would look like.
Still do.
And since my father loved science fiction, I often envisioned what a space station, or a spaceship might look like.
I watched Startrek and got some ideas. Battlestar Galactica gave me others. I read about other writers’ ideas in many books.
When we walked the moon, I wondered if we would ever build a space station, and go further.
What would crafts able to travel in deep space look like? Probably not like the airplanes I saw flying overhead at the time. I researched space travel for my book Past the Event Horizon and tasked my character Richard Steele to build a space station in Space Song.
Of course in imagination, there is no price tag and mine is fairly large and spacious, but not without some stumbling blocks.
Gravity, radiation, fuel, distances, oxygen, and many more elements would drive innovation in designing a safe travel vehicle or spinning way station …
but man has ingenuity…and imagination, and can do amazing things
I would close my eyes and envision a spinning station where people worked experiments, slept, ate, and launched ships onto other worlds.
Now I have reached that future.
It’s not exactly what I expected. Or saw in most movies, but I often feared I wouldn’t see it in my lifetime.
And yet one of these now exists. Enjoy a tour of our International Space Station, courtesy of the imagination of man.
And be amazed at what man has accomplished.
Click here: Departing Space Station Commander Provides Tour of Orbital Laboratory – YouTube