18. Space travel and rocket technology, making plans to escape the small world
As electronic communications made the world smaller, so humankind began to look to space. Rocket technology, of course, is just a small part of space travel, and in fact, if there ever was a combined human technological achievement that combines every great innovation, then this is it. Astronomy, the original basis of animist worship, and a field of study thousands of years old. Mathematics, no less of an ancient field of knowledge. Advanced physics, chemistry, mechanics and, of course, computerization.
We all know that rocket technology began in China with the discovery of gunpowder, and was used primarily for religious, ceremonial and festive purposes. It was not long, of course, before ballistics emerged as an unintended consequence, but rockets remained a feature of the battlefield more or less from the moment that aiming a rocket in a given direction became possible.
Space travel, however, is, without doubt, the acme of rocket technology, although, despite its grand scale, the principal remains simple, and mostly unchanged. Space travel, however, is more than simply a means of propulsion to break the gravitation pull of the earth, and it is more than a means of delivering earth-shattering weapons systems. It is the sum of all human aspiration and the basis upon which we as a species will leave this earth. Hopefully, that comes in time to avoid MAD, or ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’, the net result of that other use of rocket technology, nuclear weapons.
