Space exploration. Spiritual quest. What do they have in common? Not much, at first glance, but both involve overcoming limitations that can sometimes seem insurmountable. Being in the "business" of space exploration, I find numerous parallels between humanity's quest for answers to questions such as "How did the universe begin?" and "Does life exist someplace besides planet earth?" and my own spiritual quest to understand more about God. This includes learning more about my relationship to Him.
Discovery can free humankind from preconceived notions. And in the history of space exploration, discovery actually began thousands of years ago, when ancient mariners learned how to use the stars for navigation. It freed them from having to stay within sight of land to know where they were.
In the current era of space exploration, scientists are learning that there are planets around other stars that are billions of kilometers away, and they are designing space missions to search for earthlike planets to see if any of them might support life. We're learning that there are other places in our solar system, notably Mars, as well as Jupiter's moon Europa, which may have, or have had, the right conditions to support life. We're developing technology that will enable us to send life-detection instruments to such places to see if it's possible that life exists there, or has ever existed there. These missions will undoubtedly result in new discoveries.
