Science Fiction by Gaslight
- SCIENCE FICTION BY GASLIGHT - Acrylic painting, 9 x 12. I don't know why I decided to paint an old fashioned space ship, I should have been thinking about what a spaceship might look like 100 years from now, instead of 100 years ago. I may have been reading H.G. Wells or Jules Verne at the time.
When I started reading science fiction in 1950, the concept of a man in a spaceship landing on the moon was something I thought would take place decades after my lifetime. But incredibly, it actually happened just nineteen years later, on July 21, 1969 when American astronaut Neil Armstrong put his foot down on the surface of the moon. Incredibly, that historical event happened over 40 years ago, and it disturbs me that by now an American astronaut has not as yet put his boot down on the sands of Mars! Sadly, it may not be an American that first walks across the sands of Mars,
For several generations now, our federal government has become tragically incompetent and wasteful with our tax money, which is our only source for funds. As a nation we do not earn enough money to pay for our misguided government programs. To survive, we borrow from other nations, mostly from China. And now, we are over 17 TRILLION dollars in debt! - As a result of all this mismanagement our government has decided that it can no longer afford funding a robust space program. Which essentially puts the future of space exploration into the hands of China's scientists and engineers!
Speaking of governments investing in expeditionary voyages, did you know that Christopher Columbus had to wait seven years to get an appointment to see Spain's Queen Isabella about funding a controversial and dangerous "voyage" he was planning to take?
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