Laika was a good simple dog; on Board of the
Sputnik 2 (russian; =companion),
however, she also became one of the great pioneers of space.
On the 3rd of November 1957 she took the banner of life into
space for the first time.
She has shown that mankind alongside with our fellow animals
of this planet can make the advance into space come true.
A lot has been reached since.
Further highlights of cosmonautics were the flight of Juri Gagarin as
first human into space as well as the "little step" of Neil Armstrong
onto the moon.
In our days now we will see the International Space Station (ISS)
turn ready for action, and new results of Mars-studies have us guessing
whether we all might have originated on Mars - "emigrated" from there
onto Earth more than 4 billion years ago as most simple life-forms.
What will those many probes searching the whole solar system from
Mars to distant comets find?
These are some of the most topical questions and challenges
that heaven poses us. There are many more questions:
How can we travel further and deeper into space? Whereto?
Are there worlds beyond Mars that we could develop?
Is there knowledge or natural ressources that we can put to our use there?
Would it be possible to live there? Are we allone?
And if there is life: How intelligent is it?
Does it have values that we could understand and react adequately towards?
How can we communicate with them?
We still hardly have answers for any of these questions, much less
provable ones. We could find them, if we want to...
The life and the values connected with it are on their way to advance
into space. They are worth it for humanity to summon up all her strength
for its advance. Every pioneering step in this direction will not only
bring us answers to our questions, but also make a living and joyful galaxy
come ever more true.
Even a small step for a single human can, alongside those of the many
others, advance humanity a big step, as Armstrong recognized already...
Let us take up the challenge of the stars!
More about cosmonautics (engl. word of greek/russian origin;
also called space travel):
54th International
Astronautical Congress 2003 in Bremen
Lecture: Commercial
Exploration of Space (Sorry, only in German so far)
further links
German
Responsible person for these websites is Jens
Hasse,
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