astronomer and author Stuart Atkinson
Well, despite their name, shooting stars -- or "meteors" to use their proper name -- are not stars at all; they're tiny bits of space dust burning up as they streak through Earth's atmosphere. And although most people think they are very rare, so rare that superstition has it that it's worth making a wish when you are lucky enough to see one, they're really not. The solar system is full of this space dust, it's everywhere, and Earth is encountering it all the time. So, on any clear night, if you're lucky, i.e. looking in the right direction at the right time, you can see a shooting star every half hour or so probably. They're just random events, a streak of light that comes from nowhere, from a random direction, that is gone in a moment.
STUART ATKINSON
"Meteor Shower visible next few nights...", Cumbrian Sky
There are many reasons for going to Mars -- practical, spiritual and political. But the most important reason is that while people are still excited by the promise of space exploration, they are frustrated by it, because they can see that we're not actually exploring anymore. People aren't excited by International Space Station hardware delivery missions to low-Earth orbit, or by scientific flights, regardless of how useful they are. People want a more noble and ambitious space programme. Give the public Mars, and public support for the space programme will fly like a rocket.
STUART ATKINSON
New Mars, Mar. 7, 2003
Some say that we should stop exploring space, that the cost in human lives is too great. But Columbia's crew would not have wanted that. We are a curious species, always wanting to know what is over the next hill, around the next corner, on the next island. And we have been that way for thousands of years.
STUART ATKINSON
New Mars, Mar. 7, 2003