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NASA needs funding

I made a feeble attempt at a science-fiction story recently (“Origins: File 2019”) in which I gave credence to Erich von Daniken’s theory of Earth having been visited by ancient astronauts.

So my attention was caught by the article (“New Mars discoveries make case for possible life,” June 8, 2018) in which an astrobiologist from the Netherlands is quoted as saying that “The question of whether life might have originated or existed on Mars is a lot more opportune now …” It seems apt at this point to quote from T. S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding (Four Quartets)”: “We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

I can see it now: jobs available in the space program through contractors and subcontractors, some of the latter quite small and in Spokane. Now all young people here need to do is convince those nearsighted members of Congress to fund NASA more adequately, if they still fund it at all.

Judith Maibie

Spokane

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