While some of us on earth still struggle with the newly discovered, pre-modern, Neanderthal genes coursing through what was thought to be our exclusive, modern Homo sapiens blood stream, others have overcome. Their intellect, eyes and ears – and sense of wonder – are aboard numerous space vehicles, which including the moon, have managed to visit all of the planets in our solar system. In order for us, the still-earthbound, to experience anything close to the elation that must overcome those outer space explorers, we would have to participate in the performance of the glorious oratorios of George Frederick Handel and Franz Josef Haydn. It is as though they, themselves, were traversing those magnificent sights in the outer world. They took Biblical stories amd turned them into the most compelling combinations of musical instruments and the human voice imaginable. These adio-artistic assemblages reach their zenith in great choral works such as Handel's, Hallelujah Chorus, from The Messiah; and Haydn's, The Heavens are Telling, from The Creation.
After nine years and three billion miles, the compact space laboratory New Horizons made humankind's first incursion into the frigid Kuiper Belt at the edge of Earth's solar system! Its target was the much-maligned, now-dwarf planet Pluto. The small spaceship – after a dramatic increase in speed, from being slung off Jupiter's gravity-- had spent years in hibernation. It was awakened to prepare for the meeting with Pluto and its multiple moons. The moons were items of concern for awhile, but ended up being non-intrusive targets for New Horizon's magnificently expensive cameras.
As a stark contrast with what is considered important on Earth, we need only take note of what has occurred on Earth since 2006, and compare it with New Horizon's placid voyage, which demonstrates the eternal simplicity of time, space and distance. Last year, a more universally local duplication of that equation was performed, consuming ten years and many more billions of miles. An international team of scientists and astronautical engineers landed another extraterrestrial scidentific laboratory,Rosetta, on a speeding comet.
Great plaudits are due to these teams of genius who dedicate their lives to these missions, which are nothing less than springboards for the advancement of mankind. While the spotlight may be on the material product, it takes the blood, bones and sinew – and a heap of gray matter -- to fling those magic machines into the unknown.
Speaking of the unknown, that is the destination of New Horizons. After photographing the entire Plutonian neighborhood and testing its elements, it is leaving our solar system for universal oblivion. It will require another sixteen months to complete the transmission to earth of all the images is has collected.
Bon voyage, New Horizons. Exalt in your endlessfreedom, as the majestic strains of Hallellujah and The Heavens are Telling urge you on and on through the cosmos.
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A wily old spaceship left Earth.
Its knowledge was nowhere near "dearth".
By Pluto it passed —
But, not all that fast.
It noted much more than its girth.
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