Astronomical mysteries
Mark Pavilons

In almost every generation, someone is heard to remark that "the world is moving much too fast."

Truer words have never been spoken.

Every second, we ant-like human beings literally travel thousands and thousands of miles.

We're built for speed, baby.

Our blue-green Earth is a speed demon, travelling around our life-giving sun at an incredible 67,000 miles per hour. So when you see photos and live footage of the astronauts out for a jaunt alongside the International Space Station, they too, are whipping through space at that rate. It's not that remarkable, but what is vital is avoiding contact with an space debris. Imagine hitting a rock at 67 big ones? That'll put a good dent in the chrome, let me tell you.

Speeds increase in the bigger picture. Our star cluster is perched on the outer arm of the sprial-shaped Milky Way galaxy. This galaxy is rotating at 500,000 miles per hour, and the entire spinning thing is zippping through space at roughly 540,000 miles per hour.

It really sounds quite phenomenal and it is. But given the scope of what we're talking about here (galaxies in relation to the entire universe), it's small potatoes. Speeding through the cosmos is pretty much irrelevant to the price of gas at the pumps.

I suppose it's just this sort of astromical data that makes people shy away from an interest in galactic mysteries.

While many young boys dream of becoming an astronaut one day (until they learn just what that means), few young adults follow their interest in the stars through high school or beyond. I suppose there's not much demand for astrophysicists or wormhole theorists these days.

But the universe is really the ultimate final frontier.

Sure, we still have much to learn about our Earth and what's hiding beneath our oceans (which contain a multitude of undiscovered life forms). And we have equally as much to learn about the human condition. We've never learned from our own history, so we continue to repeat our mistakes. At this rate, we'll be perfect in just a few short millennia!

Given our prowess and thirst for knowledge, we will likely uncover the secrets of our jungles, deserts and oceans, and may even one day locate the lost city of Atlantis. And all of this may happen in our lifetimes.

But the universe will always remain as the utlimate quest. And that's why humankind has been so fascinated by it.

Many average citizens often ask why governments (particularly the U.S. and its commitment to NASA) devote such money and effort to piddling around our solar system, when there are more pressing problems on terra firma. Since the "space race" of the 1960s, we've spent a lot of money, and yet only gone around the block.

We spent years reaching the moon, and once we did it was almost anti-climactic. There is talk of a return visit in the coming years.

I think the moon has great potential as a tourist destination of the 2100s. It's close, relatively speaking, and it's got a heck of a view.

But before we begin building hotels in zero gravity, some U.S. companies are already planning tourist jaunts into space. A few hours of weightless orbit and back down again, for a few hundred thousand dollars. There will be takers.

NASA's next big challenge is sending astronauts to Mars and again, this is something we'll see in our lifetime.

What many also don't understand is exploration for the sake of a good challenge. People will ask, "what's the point of going to Mars (or any other planet) when there's nothing useful there?"

I'd like to remind them that the human spirit and thirst for knowledge is seldom rational or quantifiable.

Our ancestors sailed across untamed oceans - which appeared to them as big as the universe - with little more than wood and faith. They didn't know what they'd find, or whether they'd reach their destination. But it was worth it to try.

It took this kind of pursuit to chart and settle our globe. It took this kind of bravery and sense of adventure to further humankind.

And it's this kind of drive that will take us to the stars and beyond.

Again, what we find there is pretty much irrelevant. It's the journey, not the destination. It always has been.

By the time we venture out beyond our own puny "subdivision" in space, our brains and attitudes will have developed sufficiently to aid us in the task.

Right now, we're simply not ready to explore the vastness of space with any sort of authority.

Heck, most of us can't balance our cheque books. And we're far too self-centred and aggressive to become galactic peacekeepers.

But we continue to dream.

We continue to look skyward on clear nights, wondering what secrets are hiding behind that distant star. Some of long to be in the captain's chair of a starship, ordering the helmsman to set a new course, raise the shields and arm the photon torpedoes!

Space may be cold and cruel, but it beckons, not unlike the mermaids of yesteryear.

The what and where isn't important. The reason - because it's there - is.