Aliens. Astronauts. Black Holes. Space Shuttles. International Space Station. The Space Race. The First Man on the Moon. Halley's Comet. For my entire life society has always had a fascination about space exploraton and everything outside the Earth, yet I never really got into it: never wanted to be an astronaut (deathly scared of going at incontrollable high speeds and a little claustrophobic too) and didn't understand the allure of these other planets and galaxies that seemed so far away and devoid of anything that I liked: games, sports, food, etc. Recently, though, I've become enthralled by the private flights to Mars and the possibility of civilan transport to Mars, a concept that I didn't think was possible during my lifetime. Isn't Mars really really far away? Apparently, it now would take around 7 months to go from Earth to Mars, shorter time than it takes for most pregnancies. Especially with scientists speculating about the long-term future of the Earth due to global warming as well as natural disasters like getting hit by an asteroid, Mars seems more and more like a possbility for humans beings to inhabit at some point in the future. (I watched a recent interview between Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, now the richest man in the world due to Tesla's extremely inflated market cap.- Yes I said it, I think TSLA is overvalued, but if everyone is OK with buying it at the valuation, then maybe it's fairly valued). There's actually an intriguing stock I own directly related to space exploration, the aptly named "SPCE"- Virgin Galactic, founded by billionaire Richard Branson who likes that word Virgin apparently. It's really interesting that space travel, previously monopolized by governments during the Space Race, is now being privatized and tried out by various companies. (Jeff Bezos recently also transitioned out of CEO at Amazon to focus more on Blue Origin) It really does seem like there will be a new wave of interest in this fascinating category of human life, whereas in my childhood it seemed a little subdued after Apollo 11's landing on the moon in 1969. Perhaps getting the first person to Mars will be jet fuel for interest in the field?
I, for one, just recently (due to Jeopardy) learned about the International Space Station and the various US space shuttle voyages, with the unfortunate fates of the Challenger in 1986 and the Columbia in 2003. One of my favorite movies is The Martian with Matt Damon featuring a ficitonal mission to mars that results in Damon having to live on Mars by himself and grow plants. Fascinating movie that shows the coordination between the main power players in space exploration (China and the US).....if only cooperation was so easy to get. MJ and I watched it at a theater after having a nice dinner at P.F. Chang's as part of one of our first dates......very memorable, especially after the most recent Valentine's Day, our 6th Valentine's Day together. MJ found a very nice card for me that suited our position perfectly: It said that I was the world's No. 1 husband, and MJ was not just my wife, she was my biggest fan. It inspired me to be an even better, and loving husband. Happy Valentine's Day!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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