I was watching TV last night, 60 MInutes to be exact, and the topic of space exploration and missions to Mars and new Lunar Landings were discussed. Two things surprised me. First, no-one has set foot on the moon in my lifetime. The last manned mission to the moon was back in '72. I think I has just assumed that when the astronauts were tinkering with space stations, they'd make a little stop on the moon, while they were in the neighbourhood. I don't know where I got that idea from. However, what really surprised me, (and it shouldn't have - it seems so obvious), is that there is more computer technology in my cellphone then there was on any of the Apollo missions to the Moon. I use my phone to do everything from look up words in the Korean-English dictionary, to checking the subway map to see how long it takes to get from one station to another, to taking pictures of things that amuse me. (You'll notice I rarely use it as a phone.) It was like a little lightening bolt in my brain when I realized that I had grown up considering space exploration to be the epitome of technological marvels...and that somewhere in the past 30 years, technology far surpassed the days of Apollo missions. How did Buzz and Neil manage a whole moon-walking mission without a little MP3 player and a pocket-sized access to Google?
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