我们为什么要探索宇宙？WhyExploreSpace？中英文
我的家乡作文200字-华南农业大学招生
为什么要探索宇宙
[原版英文在后]
1970年，赞比亚修女
Mary Jucunda 给美国NASA航行中心科学副总监Ernst Stuhlinger
（
史都林格）博士写信问道：目前地球上还有这么多小孩子吃不上饭，他怎么能舍得为远在
火星的项目花费
数十亿美元……Stuhlinger很快给Jucunda
修女回了信，他这封真挚的回信
随后由NASA以《为什么要探索宇宙》为题发表。
有这么多人吃不上饭，为什么还要探索宇宙面对耗资巨大的航天项目，许多人可能都会有这样的
疑问
1970年，赞比亚修女Mary Jucunda给美国NASA航行中心科学副总监Ernst
Stuhlinger （史都林
格）博士（备注：他因在火星之旅工程中的原创性研究，成为
NASA（美国航空航天局）Marshall
太
空航行中心的科学副总监）写了一封信。信中，Mary Jucunda
修女问道：目前地球上还有这么多小
孩子吃不上饭，他怎么能舍得为远在火星的项目花费数十亿美元
Stuhlinger博士很快给Jucunda
修女回了信，同时还附带了一张题为“升起的地球”的照片，这
张标志性的照片是宇航员William
Anders于1968年圣诞节在阿波罗8号上在月球轨道上拍摄的地球
（照片中可以看到月球的地面
）。他这封真挚的回信随后由 NASA 以《为什么要探索宇宙》为标题
发表。
亲爱的Mary?Jucunda修女：
每天，我都会收到很多类似的来信，但这封对我的触
动最深，因为它来自一颗慈悲的饱含探求精神
的心灵。我会尽自己所能来回答你这个问题。
首
先，请允许我向你以及你勇敢的姐妹们表达深深的敬意，你们献身于人类最崇高的事业：帮助身
处困境的
同胞。
在来信中，你问我在目前地球上还有儿童由于饥饿面临死亡威胁的情况下，为什么还要花费数十
亿
美元来进行飞向火星的航行。我清楚你肯定不希望这样的答案：“哦，我之前不知道还有小孩子快饿<
br>死了，好吧，从现在开始，暂停所有的太空项目，直到孩子们都吃上饭再说。”事实上，早在人类的
技术水平可以畅想火星之旅之前，我已经对儿童的饥荒问题有所了解。而且，同我很多朋友的看法
一样
，我认为此时此刻，我们就应该开始通往月球、火星乃至其他行星的伟大探险。从长远来看，
相对于那些
要么只有年复一年的辩论和争吵，要么连妥协之后也迟迟无法落实的各种援助计划来说，
我甚至觉得探索
太空的工程给更有助于解决人类目前所面临的种种危机。
在详细说明我们的太空项目如何帮助解决地面
上的危机之前，我想先简短讲一个真实的故事。那是
在400年前，德国某小镇里有一位伯爵。他是个心
地善良的人，他将自己收入的一大部分捐给了镇
子上的穷人。这十分令人钦佩，因为中世纪时穷人很多，
而且那时经常爆发席卷全国的瘟疫。一天，
伯爵碰到了一个奇怪的人，他家中有一个工作台和一个小实验
室，他白天卖力工作，每天晚上的几
小时的时间专心进行研究。他把小玻璃片研磨成镜片，然后把研磨好
的镜片装到镜筒里，用此来观
察细小的物件。伯爵被这个前所未见的可以把东西放大观察的小发明迷住了
。他邀请这个怪人住到
了他的城堡里，作为伯爵的门客，此后他可以专心投入所有的时间来研究这些光学
器件。
然而，镇子上的人得知伯爵在这么一个怪人和他那些无用的玩意儿上花费金钱之
后，都很生气。“我
们还在受瘟疫的苦，”他们抱怨道，“而他却为那个闲人和他没用的爱好乱花钱！”
伯爵听到后不为所
动。“我会尽可能地接济大家，”他表示，“但我会继续资助这个人和他的工作，我确
信终有一天会有
回报。”
果不其然，他的工作（以及同时期其他人的努力）赢来了丰厚的回报
：显微镜。显微镜的发明给医
学带来了前所未有的发展，由此展开的研究及其成果，消除了世界上大部分
地区肆虐的瘟疫和其他
一些传染性疾病。
伯爵为支持这项研究发明所花费的金钱，其最终结果
大大减轻了人类所遭受的苦难，这回报远远超
过单纯将这些钱用来救济那些遭受瘟疫的人。
我
们目前面临类似的问题。美国总统的年度预算共有2000亿美元，这些钱将用于医疗、教育、福利、
城
市建设、高速公路、交通运输、海外援助、国防、环保、科技、农业以及其他多项国内外的工程。
今年，
预算中的1.6%将用于探索宇宙，这些花销将用于阿波罗以计划、其他一些涵盖了天体物理学、
深空天
文学、空间生物学、行星探测工程、地球资源工程的小项目以及空间工程技术。为担负这些
太空项目的支
出，平均每个年收入10,000美元的美国纳税人需要支付约30美元给太空，剩下的
9,970美元
则可用于一般生活开支、休闲娱乐、储蓄、别的税项等花销。
也许你会问：“为什么不从纳税人为太空
支付的30美元里抽出5美元或3美元或是1美元来救济饥
饿的儿童呢”为了回答这个问题，我需要先简
单解释一下我们国家的经济是如何运行的，其他国家也
是类似的情形。政府由几个部门（如内政部、司法
部、卫生部与公众福利部、教育部、运输部、国
防部等）和几个机构（国家科学基金会、国家航空航天局
等）组成，这些部门和机构根据自己的职
能制定相应的年度预算，并严格执行以应对国务委员会的监督，
同时还要应付来自预算部门和总统
对于其经济效益的压力。当资金最终由国会拨出后，将严格用于经预算
批准的计划中的项目。
显然，NASA的预算中所包含的项目都是和航空航天有关的。未经国会批准的
预算项目，是不会得到
资金支持的，自然也不会被课税，除非有其他部门的预算涵盖了该项目，借此花掉
没有分配给太空
项目的资金。由这段简短的说明可以看出，要想援助饥饿的儿童，或在美国已有的对外援
助项目上
增加援助金额，需要首先由相关部门提出预算，然后由国会批准才行。
要问是否同意
政府实施类似的政策，我个人的意见是绝对赞成。我完全不介意每年多付出一点点税
款来帮助饥饿的儿童
，无论他们身在何处。
我相信我的朋友们也会持相同的态度。然而，事情并不是仅靠把去往火星航行的
计划取消就能轻易
实现的。相对的，我甚至认为可以通过太空项目，来为缓解乃至最终解决地球上的贫穷
和饥饿问题
做出贡献。解决饥饿问题的关键有两部分：食物的生产和食物的发放。食物的生产所涉及的农
业、
畜牧业、渔业及其他大规模生产活动在世界上的一些地区高效高产，而在有的地区则产量严重不足。
通过高科技手段，如灌溉管理，肥料的使用，天气预报，产量评估，程序化种植，农田优选，作物
的习性与耕作时间选择，农作物调查及收割计划，可以显着提高土地的生产效率。
人造地球卫星无疑
是改进这两个关键问题最有力的工具。在远离地面的运行轨道上，卫星能够在很
短的时间里扫描大片的陆
地，可以同时观察计算农作物生长所需要的多项指标，土壤、旱情、雨雪
天气等等，并且可以将这些信息
广播至地面接收站以便做进一步处理。事实证明，配备有土地资源
传感器及相应的农业程
序的人造卫星系统，即便是最简单的型号，也能给农作物的年产量带来数以
十亿美元计的提升。
如何将食品发放给需要的人则是另外一个全新的问题，关键不在于轮船的容量，而在于国际间的合
作。
小国统治者对于来自大国的大量食品的输入会感到很困扰，他们害怕伴随着食物一同而来的还
有外国势力
对其统治地位的影响。恐怕在国与国之间消除隔阂之前，饥饿问题无法得以高效解决了。
我不认为太空计
划能一夜之间创造奇迹，然而，探索宇宙有助于促使问题向着良好的方向发展。
以最近发生的阿波罗1
3号事故为例。当宇航员处于关键的大气层再入期时，为了保证通讯畅通，苏
联关闭了境内与阿波罗飞船
所用频带相同的所有广播通信。同时派出舰艇到太平洋和大西洋海域以
备第一时间进行搜救工作。如果宇
航员的救生舱降落到俄方舰船附近，俄方人员会像对待从太空返
回的本国宇航员一样对他们进行救助。同
样，如果俄方的宇宙飞船遇到了类似的紧急情况，美国也
一定会毫不犹豫地提供援助。
通过卫
星进行监测与分析来提高食品产量，以及通过改善国际关系提高食品发放的效率，只是通过
太空项目提高
人类生活质量的两个方面。下面我想介绍另外两个重要作用：促进科学技术的发展和
提高一代人的科学素
养。
登月工程需要历史上前所未有的高精度和高可靠性。面对如此严苛的要求，我们要寻找新材料，新
方法；开发出更好的工程系统；用更可靠的制作流程；让仪器的工作寿命更长久；甚至需要探索全
新的自然规律。
这些为登月发明的新技术同样可以用于地面上的工程项目。每年，都有大概一千项从
太空项目中发
展出来的新技术被用于日常生活中，这些技术打造出更好的厨房用具和农场设备，更好的缝
纫机和
收音机，更好的轮船和飞机，更精确的天气预报和风暴预警，更好的通讯设施，更好的医疗设备，
乃至更好的日常小工具。你可能会问，为什么先设计出宇航员登月舱的维生系统，而不是先为心脏
病患者造出远程体征监测设备呢。答案很简单：解决工程问题时，重要的技术突破往往并不是按部
就班
直接得到的，而是来自能够激发出强大创新精神，能够燃起的想象力和坚定的行动力，以及能
够整合好所
有资源的充满挑战的目标。
太空旅行无可置疑地是一项充满挑战的事业。通往火星的航行并不能直接提
供食物解决饥荒问题。
然而，它所带来大量的新技术和新方法可以用在火星项目之外，这将产生数倍于原
始花费的收益。
若希望人类生活得越来越好，除了需要新的技术，我们还需要基础科学不断有新的进展
。包括物理
学和化学，生物学和生理学，特别是医学，用来照看人类的健康，应对饥饿、疾病、食物和水
的污
染以及环境污染等问题。
我们需要更多的年轻人投入到科学事业中来，我们需要给予那些
投身科研事业的有天分的科学家更
多的帮助。随时要有富于挑战的研究项目，同时要保证对项目给予充分
的资源支持。在此我要重申，
太空项目是科技进步的催化剂，它为学术研究工作提供了绝佳和实践机会，
包括对月球和其他行星
的研究、物理学和天文学、生物学和医学科学等学科，有它，科学界源源不断出现
令人激动不已研
究课题，人类得以窥见宇宙无比瑰丽的景象；为了它，新技术新方法不断涌现。
由美国政府控制并提供资金支持的所有活动中，太空项目无疑最引人瞩目也最容易引起争议，尽管
其仅
占全部预算的1.6%，不到全民生产总值的千分之三。作为新技术的驱动者和催化剂，太空项目
开展了多项基础科学的研究，它的地位注定不同于其他活动。从某种意义上来说，以太空项目的对
社会的影响，其地位相当于3-4千年前的战争活动。
如果国家之间不再比拼轰炸机和远程导弹，取
而代之比拼月球飞船的性能，那将避免多少战乱之苦！
聪慧的胜利者将满怀希望，失败者也不用饱尝痛苦
，不再埋下仇恨的种子，不再带来复仇的战争。
尽管我们开展的太空项目研究的东西离地球很遥远，已
经将人类的视野延伸至月亮、至太阳、至星
球、直至那遥远的星辰，但天文学家对地球的关注，超过以上
所有天外之物。太空项目带来的不仅
有那些新技术所提供的生活品质的提升，随着对宇宙研究的深入，我
们对地球，对生命，对人类自
身的感激之情将越深。太空探索让地球更美好。
随信一块寄出的
这张照片，是1968年圣诞节那天阿波罗8号在环月球轨道上拍摄的地球的景象。
太空项目所能带来的
各种结果中，这张照片也许是其中最可贵的一项。它开阔了人类的视野，让我
们如此直观地感受到地球是
广阔无垠的宇宙中如此美丽而又珍贵的孤岛，同时让我们认识到地球是
我们唯一的家园，离开地球就是荒
芜阴冷的外太空。无论在此之前人们对地球的了解是多么的有限，
对于破坏生态平衡的严重后果的认识是
多么的不充分。在这张照片公开发表之后，面对人类目前所
面临的种种严峻形势，如环境污染、饥饿、贫
穷、过度城市化、粮食问题、水资源问题、人口问题
等等，号召大家正视这些严重问题的呼声越来越多。
人们突然表示出对自身问题的关注，不能说和
目前正在进行的这些初期太空探索项目，以及它所带来的对
于人类自身家园的全新视角无关。
太空探索不仅仅给人类提供一面审视自己的镜子，它还能给我们带来
全新的技术，全新的挑战和进
取精神，以及面对严峻现实问题时依然乐观自信的心态。我相信，人类从宇
宙中学到的，充分印证
了Albert?Schweitzer那句名言：“我忧心忡忡地看待未来，但
仍满怀美好的希望。”
向您和您的孩子们致以我最真挚的敬意！
您诚挚的，
恩斯特-史都林格
科学副总监
1970年5月6日
译者：kelejiabing 原文作者：Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger
附带原文：
Why Explore Space?
By: Dr. Ernst
Stuhlinger
In 1970, a Zambia-based nun named
Sister Mary Jucunda wrote to Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger,
then-associate
director of science at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, in response to his
ongoing research into a
piloted mission
to Mars. Specifically, she asked how he could
suggest spending billions of dollars on such a
project at a time when so many children were
starving on Earth.
Stuhlinger soon sent the
following letter of explanation to Sister Jucunda,
along with a copy of
the iconic photograph of
Earth taken in 1968 by astronaut William Anders,
from the Moon (also embedded
in the
transcript). His thoughtful reply was later
published by NASA, and titled,
(Source: Roger
Launius, via Gavin Williams; Photo above: The
surface of Mars, taken by Curiosity
today,
August 6th, 2012. Via NASA.)
May 6, 1970
Dear Sister Mary Jucunda:
Your letter was
one of many which are reaching me every day, but
it has touched me more deeply than all
the
others because it came so much from the depths of
a searching mind and a compassionate heart. I will
try to answer your question as best as I
possibly can.
First, however, I would like to
express my great admiration for you, and for all
your many brave sisters,
because you are
dedicating your lives to the noblest cause of man:
help for his fellowmen who are in need.
You
asked in your letter how I could suggest the
expenditures of billions of dollars for a voyage
to Mars, at
a time when many children on this
Earth are starving to death. I know that you do
not expect an answer
such as
any kind of
space research until mankind has solved that
problem!
children long before I knew that a
voyage to the planet Mars is technically feasible.
However, I believe,
like many of my friends,
that travelling to the Moon and eventually to Mars
and to other planets is a
venture which we
should undertake now, and I even believe that this
project, in the long run, will contribute
more
to the solution of these grave problems we are
facing here on Earth than many other potential
projects
of help which are debated and
discussed year after year, and which are so
extremely slow in yielding
tangible results.
Before trying to describe in more detail how
our space program is contributing to the solution
of our
Earthly problems, I would like to
relate briefly a supposedly true story, which may
help support the
argument. About 400 years
ago, there lived a count in a small town in
Germany. He was one of the benign
counts, and
he gave a large part of his income to the poor in
his town. This was much appreciated, because
poverty was abundant during medieval times,
and there were epidemics of the plague which
ravaged the
country frequently. One day, the
count met a strange man. He had a workbench and
little laboratory in his
house, and he labored
hard during the daytime so that he could afford a
few hours every evening to work in
his
laboratory. He ground small lenses from pieces of
glass; he mounted the lenses in tubes, and he used
these gadgets to look at very small objects.
The count was particularly fascinated by the tiny
creatures that
could be observed with the
strong magnification, and which he had never seen
before. He invited the man
to move with his
laboratory to the castle, to become a member of
the count's household, and to devote
henceforth all his time to the development and
perfection of his optical gadgets as a special
employee of the
count.
The
townspeople, however, became angry when they
realized that the count was wasting his money, as
they thought, on a stunt without purpose.
paying that man for a useless hobby!
said,
of it!
Indeed, something very good came out
of this work, and also out of similar work done by
others at other
places: the microscope. It is
well known that the microscope has contributed
more than any other invention
to the progress
of medicine, and that the elimination of the
plague and many other contagious diseases from
most parts of the world is largely a result of
studies which the microscope made possible.
The count, by retaining some of his spending
money for research and discovery, contributed far
more to the
relief of human suffering than he
could have contributed by giving all he could
possibly spare to his
plague-ridden community.
The situation which we are facing today is
similar in many respects. The President of the
United States is
spending about 200 billion
dollars in his yearly budget. This money goes to
health, education, welfare,
urban renewal,
highways, transportation, foreign aid, defense,
conservation, science, agriculture and many
installations inside and outside the country.
About 1.6 percent of this national budget was
allocated to space
exploration this year. The
space program includes Project Apollo, and many
other smaller projects in space
physics, space
astronomy, space biology, planetary projects,
Earth resources projects, and space
engineering. To make this expenditure for the
space program possible, the average American
taxpayer with
10,000 dollars income per year
is paying about 30 tax dollars for space. The rest
of his income, 9,970
dollars, remains for his
subsistence, his recreation, his savings, his
other taxes, and all his other
expenditures.
You will probably ask now:
average
American taxpayer is paying, and send these
dollars to the hungry children?
question, I
have to explain briefly how the economy of this
country works. The situation is very similar in
other countries. The government consists of a
number of departments (Interior, Justice, Health,
Education
and Welfare, Transportation,
Defense, and others) and the bureaus (National
Science Foundation, National
Aeronautics and
Space Administration, and others). All of them
prepare their yearly budgets according to
their assigned missions, and each of them must
defend its budget against extremely severe
screening by
congressional committees, and
against heavy pressure for economy from the Bureau
of the Budget and the
President. When the
funds are finally appropriated by Congress, they
can be spent only for the line items
specified
and approved in the budget.
The budget of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
naturally, can contain only items
directly
related to aeronautics and space. If this budget
were not approved by Congress, the funds proposed
for it would not be available for something
else; they would simply not be levied from the
taxpayer, unless
one of the other budgets had
obtained approval for a specific increase which
would then absorb the funds
not spent for
space. You realize from this brief discourse that
support for hungry children, or rather a
support in addition to what the United States
is already contributing to this very worthy cause
in the form of
foreign aid, can be obtained
only if the appropriate department submits a
budget line item for this purpose,
and if this
line item is then approved by Congress.
You may ask now whether I personally
would be in favor of such a move by our
government. My answer is
an emphatic yes.
Indeed, I would not mind at all if my annual taxes
were increased by a number of dollars
for the
purpose of feeding hungry children, wherever they
may live.
I know that all of my friends feel
the same way. However, we could not bring such a
program to life merely
by desisting from
making plans for voyages to Mars. On the contrary,
I even believe that by working for
the space
program I can make some contribution to the relief
and eventual solution of such grave problems
as poverty and hunger on Earth. Basic to the
hunger problem are two functions: the production
of food and
the distribution of food. Food
production by agriculture, cattle ranching, ocean
fishing and other large-scale
operations is
efficient in some parts of the world, but
drastically deficient in many others. For example,
large areas of land could be utilized far
better if efficient methods of watershed control,
fertilizer use,
weather forecasting, fertility
assessment, plantation programming, field
selection, planting habits, timing of
cultivation, crop survey and harvest planning
were applied.
The best tool for the
improvement of all these functions, undoubtedly,
is the artificial Earth satellite.
Circling
the globe at a high altitude, it can screen wide
areas of land within a short time; it can observe
and
measure a large variety of factors
indicating the status and condition of crops,
soil, droughts, rainfall, snow
cover, etc.,
and it can radio this information to ground
stations for appropriate use. It has been
estimated
that even a modest system of Earth
satellites equipped with Earth resources, sensors,
working within a
program for worldwide
agricultural improvements, will increase the
yearly crops by an equivalent of many
billions
of dollars.
The distribution of the food to
the needy is a completely different problem. The
question is not so much
one of shipping
volume, it is one of international cooperation.
The ruler of a small nation may feel very
uneasy about the prospect of having large
quantities of food shipped into his country by a
large nation,
simply because he fears that
along with the food there may also be an import of
influence and foreign
power. Efficient relief
from hunger, I am afraid, will not come before the
boundaries between nations have
become less
divisive than they are today. I do not believe
that space flight will accomplish this miracle
over
night. However, the space program is
certainly among the most promising and powerful
agents working in
this direction.
Let me
only remind you of the recent near-tragedy of
Apollo 13. When the time of the crucial reentry of
the
astronauts approached, the Soviet Union
discontinued all Russian radio transmissions in
the frequency
bands used by the Apollo Project
in order to avoid any possible interference, and
Russian ships stationed
themselves in the
Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans in case an
emergency rescue would become necessary.
Had
the astronaut capsule touched down near a Russian
ship, the Russians would undoubtedly have
expended as much care and effort in their
rescue as if Russian cosmonauts had returned from
a space trip. If
Russian space travelers
should ever be in a similar emergency situation,
Americans would do the same
without any doubt.
Higher food production through survey and
assessment from orbit, and better food
distribution through
improved international
relations, are only two examples of how profoundly
the space program will impact
life on Earth. I
would like to quote two other examples:
stimulation of technological development, and
generation of scientific knowledge.
The requirements for high precision and
for extreme reliability which must be imposed upon
the
components of a moon-travelling spacecraft
are entirely unprecedented in the history of
engineering. The
development of systems which
meet these severe requirements has provided us a
unique opportunity to find
new material and
methods, to invent better technical systems, to
manufacturing procedures, to lengthen the
lifetimes of instruments, and even to discover
new laws of nature.
All this newly acquired
technical knowledge is also available for
application to Earth-bound technologies.
Every
year, about a thousand technical innovations
generated in the space program find their ways
into our
Earthly technology where they lead to
better kitchen appliances and farm equipment,
better sewing
machines and radios, better
ships and airplanes, better weather forecasting
and storm warning, better
communications,
better medical instruments, better utensils and
tools for everyday life. Presumably, you
will
ask now why we must develop first a life support
system for our moon-travelling astronauts, before
we
can build a remote-reading sensor system
for heart patients. The answer is simple:
significant progress in
the solutions of
technical problems is frequently made not by a
direct approach, but by first setting a goal of
high challenge which offers a strong
motivation for innovative work, which fires the
imagination and spurs
men to expend their best
efforts, and which acts as a catalyst by including
chains of other reactions.
Spaceflight without
any doubt is playing exactly this role. The voyage
to Mars will certainly not be a direct
source
of food for the hungry. However, it will lead to
so many new technologies and capabilities that the
spin-offs from this project alone will be
worth many times the cost of its implementation.
Besides the need for new technologies, there
is a continuing great need for new basic knowledge
in the
sciences if we wish to improve the
conditions of human life on Earth. We need more
knowledge in physics
and chemistry, in biology
and physiology, and very particularly in medicine
to cope with all these problems
which threaten
man's life: hunger, disease, contamination of food
and water, pollution of the environment.
We
need more young men and women who choose science
as a career and we need better support for those
scientists who have the talent and the
determination to engage in fruitful research work.
Challenging
research objectives must be
available, and sufficient support for research
projects must be provided. Again,
the space
program with its wonderful opportunities to engage
in truly magnificent research studies of
moons
and planets, of physics and astronomy, of biology
and medicine is an almost ideal catalyst which
induces the reaction between the motivation
for scientific work, opportunities to observe
exciting
phenomena of nature, and material
support needed to carry out the research effort.
Among all the activities which are directed,
controlled, and funded by the American government,
the space
program is certainly the most
visible and probably the most debated activity,
although it consumes only 1.6
percent of the
total national budget, and 3 per mille (less than
one-third of 1 percent) of the gross national
product. As a stimulant and catalyst for the
development of new technologies, and for research
in the basic
sciences, it is unparalleled by
any other activity. In this respect, we may even
say that the space program is
taking over a
function which for three or four thousand years
has been the sad prerogative of wars.
How much
human suffering can be avoided if nations, instead
of competing with their bomb-dropping
fleets
of airplanes and rockets, compete with their moon-
travelling space ships! This competition is full
of
promise for brilliant victories, but it
leaves no room for the bitter fate of the
vanquished, which breeds
nothing but revenge
and new wars.
Although our space
program seems to lead us away from our Earth and
out toward the moon, the sun, the
planets, and
the stars, I believe that none of these celestial
objects will find as much attention and study by
space scientists as our Earth. It will become
a better Earth, not only because of all the new
technological
and scientific knowledge which
we will apply to the betterment of life, but also
because we are developing
a far deeper
appreciation of our Earth, of life, and of man.
The photograph which I enclose with this
letter shows a view of our Earth as seen from
Apollo 8 when it
orbited the moon at
Christmas, 1968. Of all the many wonderful results
of the space program so far, this
picture may
be the most important one. It opened our eyes to
the fact that our Earth is a beautiful and most
precious island in an unlimited void, and that
there is no other place for us to live but the
thin surface layer
of our planet, bordered by
the bleak nothingness of space. Never before did
so many people recognize how
limited our Earth
really is, and how perilous it would be to tamper
with its ecological balance. Ever since
this
picture was first published, voices have become
louder and louder warning of the grave problems
that
confront man in our times: pollution,
hunger, poverty, urban living, food production,
water control,
overpopulation. It is certainly
not by accident that we begin to see the
tremendous tasks waiting for us at a
time when
the young space age has provided us the first good
look at our own planet.
Very fortunately
though, the space age not only holds out a mirror
in which we can see ourselves, it also
provides us with the technologies, the
challenge, the motivation, and even with the
optimism to attack these
tasks with
confidence. What we learn in our space program, I
believe, is fully supporting what Albert
Schweitzer had in mind when he said:
My
very best wishes will always be with you, and with
your children.
Very sincerely yours,
Ernst
Stuhlinger
Associate Director for Science