Inertia
A story about the Voyager 2 spacecraft merits a blog post, even if it is just a post linking you to the article. Because when I was growing up, the only things which could possibly rival the Voyager spacecrafts in terms of absolute coolness were Volcanoes. But whereas my fascination with exploding mountains did not inspire dreams of studying lava flows, I saw the photos and information sent back by Voyagers 1 and 2 and planned to be the first girl on Jupiter. Except that I imagined it would be difficult to maintain a successful acting career with an astronaut's schedule, but what really worried me was the increased gravity of the red planet and the extra long time it would take to get there--your whole body, internal organs and everything, would be pulled into your feet--how do you make a space suit to counter that sort of thing? I couldn't even handle a week away at sleep away camp, how could I handle being away from my mom and dad for six years? And I look back on these concerns and realize that my entire life (and not simply my entire adult life) has been plagued with fears over weight and distance.
And just as it would be hard for me to jump in the TARDIS, it would be next to impossible for me to travel to another planet. But when I was seven, I never would have believed more than a quarter century would pass and we would be no closer to having the opportunity to do so.
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Then the Challenger disaster occurred, and I saw the risks involved, and gave up that idea. I was 7, and my own daughter was the same age when the Columbia disaster occurred.
Still, I'm fascinated my space travel. Whenever a shuttle takes off or lands, I sit at the computer with Guthrie and Turner and watch. A local man (Mike Fossum) was on the last mission, and they are naming a new school after him, and I'm hoping we'll get to see him speak.
And yes, as a child I thought we'd surely have someone on Mars by now, at least.