Space, the Final Etc.

The familiar phrase “space, the final frontier” is from the opening narration of the original Star Trek television show (i.e., the real Star Trek). It’s a catchy image, designed to appeal to America’s romantic if historically questionable idea of the Western frontier.

I prefer John F. Kennedy’s metaphor of space as a new ocean, one we must sail upon.

This is part of a speech he gave at Rice University in 1962: “We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.”

You can read the speech, and see and hear it, here:

https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm