Belter
- BELTER - A black ink and black and gray color pencil drawing on a 12 x 16 illustration board. It appears on the game box cover of "Belter," a board game published by Game Designer's Workshop back in the early 1980s.
The action in this game involves spacemen mining the Asteroid belt that orbits between Earth and Mars. I was glad to get a chance to expand my clientele to include "Board Games," something I had not anticipated when I started dreaming about being a SF illustrator.
Looking at this drawing however, disturbs me, because it reminds me that our misguided government has just about abandoned our space program, they say we can't afford to fund it. This magnificent venture in space has transformed, for the better, the very way we live. NASA has discovered, invented, and advanced several new technologies that keep improving every facet of our lives, it gave urgency to the advancement of the computer and cell-phone ages, and contributed greatly to the world of science and medicine. And it created lots of jobs. How can we NOT fund it? And yet, our government is putting an end to our leadership in space. Most likely Russia or China will become the pioneering nations to lead the human race into outer space. Can you imagine that? It really shakes me up!
Lest we forget . . . The Apollo 11 mission of 1969 . . . Three American astronauts aboard the command ship, "Columbia," became the first men in history to venture from the Earth to the Moon. And on July 20, while Columbia remained in orbit above the moon, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin boarded the attached landing module, "Eagle," separated from the command module and descended to the surface of the Moon. Armstrong was the first to step on the Moon, followed by Aldrin. Michael Collins remained in space with the command ship.
That historical event happened 46 years ago . . . How many Americans today remember or even understand the Glory and importance of it? . . . How many Americans even know about it?
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