Tag Archives: Cheltenham Science Festival

One thing that really shocked me was when Lord Rees pointed out that there is only 66 years from the Wright Brothers first power flight to the first men walking on the moon, some 42 years ago now. I thought for a moment that our knowledge of space may be stagnating, then I realised as Rees spoke on the tremendous achievements of those 42 years in terms of unmanned space exploration, and thought of my shock on first seeing pictures taken on Mars, and just how far our probes have gone – Voyager is now approaching the edge of the solar system. Still from Kitty Hawk to the moon in less than a single lifetime – indeed my grandmother lived through both events, and long enough to see the Pathfinder missions to Mars, yet as she once told em as a young girls she had disliked aeroplanes believing they would disturb the angels in the clouds! Continue reading →