Recently went to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and it's changed considerably since I was last there 6 years ago, most notably the giant space station exhibit they have reopened the Rose Center for Earth and Space, with the Hayden Planetarium as part of the exhibition. It was Saturday, so it was free! But there was a suggested ticket price of $18, which was worth it. The space exhibit is truly a spectacle to witness and looks massive from the bottom with multiple levels to explore, surely releasing the imagination of kids who dream of a future in space.
Astronaut is not just the professional astronauts that go up like John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, etc. as glorified in the moon landing and lunar missions, but also any person who goes up into space, and there have been several private civilians that have gone up into space without going through the NASA space program or its equivalent in Russia or China. In the future, more and more people are expected to go up into space, perhaps even colonizing Mars, living in that environment, etc. MJ and I watched our first movie in theaters together (just the two of us), an airing of The Martian starring Matt Damon (whom MJ doesn't like but doesn't diminish from the quality of the movie), making the dream of inhabiting Mars at least temporarily seem at least possible, and perhaps even inevitable if you subscribe to Elon Musk's theories and ongoing endeavors with SpaceX. It's really pretty exciting, which explains why there have been so many sci-fi movies made about space exploration and extraterrestrial encounters. (I haven't even watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, apparently one of the best movies ever!) This year, 2019, is especially monumental as it marks the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing in 1969. I can only imagine how excited everyone was, how united the human race must have been to witness such a tremendous leap forward in technology and development. New York City this summer has had several notable events and memorials related to celebrating the 1969 space missions.
50 years later, though, space doesn't seem that exciting anymore for some reason. A recent poll conducted in the US showed that when asked what they want to be when they grow up, less kids said "astronaut" than "Youtuber" when given the choice between the 2. It seems that the traditional ambitious jobs like astronaut (which was a very aspiring answer when I was a kid) has been replaced by wishing to be famous and the wish to have oneself be the center of attention, typical of the Millenial generation. In China, though, "astronaut" still was the more preferred profession, some might say due to the censorship imposed upon the Chinese people as well as the brainwashing-like policies of the government and educational systems. Whatever it is, I do think that astronomy is certainly important and astronaut a worthy goal to become, as we've really stalled in space exploration. Since I was a kid, what new steps have been made? We deemed Pluto a star, not a planet, there have been several space stations, the Chinese have been catching up their lunar missions, and the first instance of vegetables grown on another planet was eaten (seems promising for human life on other planets and very similar to what the botanist on The Martian had to do). I personally wouldn't want to be an astronaut because I get motion sickness where some people do get space sickness and have to pull out of going into space, I get pretty claustrophic even when I'm just stuck at home or at the office, and I HATE the feeling of weightlessness like when I drop from a rollercoaster. I think the science is pretty cool, but physics was a very difficult subject for me (I don't think it was taught really well by my high school physics teacher, but still....)
Conclusion: As I worry about trivial matters like fantasy baseball, the stock market, the end of July, the best places to eat in Durham, where MJ and I begin our new adventure soon, there's whole other planets out there waiting to be explored making me feel so insignificant compared to the huge universe that exists out there. Good luck and "Hwaiting!" to those astronauts going out there to explore them.
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