On 10 March 2011 the space shuttle Discovery made its final landing before being retired. It’s reentry was flawless as the shuttle went from 17,000 miles per hour to zero in just an hour. The retiring of Discovery marks the beginning  of the end of an era in space travel, the end of the age of the space shuttle.

Everyone is now wondering what will be next. Personally, I am hoping NASA will finally take on the colossal task of a manned flight to Mars. Obama, in his State of the Union address, said that this is our Sputnik moment. The last generation had the plan to get to the moon as inspiration; our inspiration is building electric cars and better internet. That doesn’t seem very inspiring to me at all. Instead I think that we should at least make an attempt to explore the incredible solar system in which we live.
It behooves everyone in America to learn more about the solar system. By knowing more about it we can learn more about our place within it. Not to mention there are some pretty awesome, and humbling, things about space.