The Space Race Is Over

Not long after a wee robot has a good nose around Mars, the world sees the exit of the first human to walk on a piece of rock that wasn't this planet. Neil Armstrong may have came across a private, humble individual, but no-one can doubt his place in history.

It seems strange that his moment of immortality happened 12 years before I was even born, as nobody else has been up there in many years. My dad told me about watching it with his great-grandfather, who was in his late 80s and would die not long after. Growing up just before the start of the 20th century, I doubt he saw a motor car till he was in his 30s, which gives you an idea of the huge steps made by humanity across such a short space of time.

As a child, anything to do with space and the galaxy out there fascinated me. Living away from the big cities, there was little light pollution and the stars would be visible on any clear night. I'd watch episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and feel jealous I had to get born in 1981 and not 2381.

Neil Armstrong, from what I gather, was always keen to emphasise all the hard working members of the team that put him up and the rest of the select few up there on the moon. Mission Control, engineers who designed the spaceships and the like - but, he was the one who had to have the testicular fortitude to actually do what nobody else had done before. Like Columbus sailing over the horizon when a lot of people thought there was an edge to fall off or a man-eating dragon, Armstrong personified that curiosity humanity has to do things for no better reason than to see what happens.

After all, by walking on the moon, it wasn't like the world was overcome by peace and love at the sight of this incredible feat. Indeed, you could suggest the whole thing was a PR coup for the US Government to stick two fingers up to their friends in Moscow and say "stick that, Ivan". But if nothing else, it satisfied the answer people have been asking since we first developed some kind of intelligence: "I wonder what's up there?"