Apollo astronauts were my heroes when I was a kid. I remember Apollo 8 vividly, and I did a report on Apollo 9 for school. And everyone of my age group remembers Apollo 11 and the moon landings. Bill Anders, one of the three-man crew of Apollo 8, died last week at age 90. He was still flying and was killed in his T-34 while attempting a stunt maneuver near his home in northwest Washington. I hope I’m still walking if I make it to 90!

Anders took a photograph of the earth in December of 1968 when Apollo 8 was rounding the far side of the moon. No humans had ever seen that view. The photo came to be called “Earthrise” and is one of the most famous images of our time.

Speaking of the moment, Anders said: “We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing that we discovered was the Earth.” (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw99wj5e5q8o)

The Apollo missions were powered by the largest rocket ever built, the Saturn V. It took 68 hours for Apollo 8 to reach the moon. And that was just three guys. Imagine outfitting a larger crew for a more extended stay. It’s easy to see that space travel is a pretty silly notion. Space exploration on the other hand, is pretty cool. Apollo 8 was 56 years ago. Humans haven’t traveled any further into space since then but they’ve certainly explored a lot more.

Robots are better for space than humans anyway. Humans need a blue planet. Robots can live and work in a vacuum. They can be irradiated. They can operate round-the-clock. They can travel further, see farther, collect more data, and best of all they don’t have to come home safely. They’re cheaper, too.

We know more about space than we do about our own blue planet, especially the blue part. The oceans are the source of all life. We should take better care of them.