Space travel has let us see the entire world with unprecedented clarity. Now we just need to pick our next destination. (From the archive)
Col. Chris Hadfield is the former commander of the International Space Station, the first Canadian to walk in orbit outside the station, and the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm. He is also guest-editing a special space issue of Maclean’s, out on newsstands both physical and digital—on Next Issue, Apple Newsstand and Google Play—now. Here, the iconic spaceman writes on the majesty of space.
Until very recently, our voyages into outer space were pure fantasy. From Hindu and Greek epics to Voltaire’s “Micromégas,” the imaginations of our ancestors were stretched by the immense possibilities of the universe. With the invention of the telescope, the fervour only intensified, as Galileo showed us Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons, and Percival Lowell and Ray Bradbury wrote about canals on Mars.
There is nothing sacrosanct about space exploration. It’s just the latest version of an ancient pattern: using our most advanced technology to discover, probe, then irrevocably push back the edges of our experience and imagination. For the past few decades, we’ve been looking nearby using robotic probes. Life as we know it requires water and heat, and we have found that combination in surprising places here in our solar system. Mars has oceans of water frozen in the dirt of its permafrost, and has the largest volcano we’ve ever seen, anywhere. Asteroid Ceres, so big, it’s really more of a dwarf planet, looks as if it may contain more water than all the fresh water that exists on Earth.
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