Span the Heavens
October 14th, 2020 by G.
One small prayer for a boy, Elder Asay says, referring to the 1st vision, one great prayer for mankind.
The moon landings were great. They almost seem greater because we receded and can’t do them anymore. But in reality they would have been greater if they were a beachhead. If they led to hundreds of other footsteps, workers’ footsteps, settlers’ footsteps, fathers’ and mothers’ footsteps, babies’ footsteps . . . .
The great glory of Joseph’s prayer is that millions can and do follow his footsteps.
You can soar. You can reach what is out there. You can span the heavens.
Until the Eagle has landed, and Christ welcomes you home.
Other Posts from the Sunday Morning session of the April 1990 General Conference
Marilyn Nielson A harvest of mercy
Bookslinger
October 14, 2020
“… would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” -Numbers 11:29.
Sute
October 14, 2020
I’m kind of the mindset that for the various benefits in technology making it possible to get into space and explore it, it’s no place for mankind.
Drones and robots. The fact that muscles and bones deteriorate, DNA is altered, radiation is a major issue, all suggest that mankind should stay on this planet.
Stop spending so much money and space etc on life support. More robots.
And this idea that we’ll ever get passed out solar system? (Manned ships that is) It’s crazy. The distances are so vast. We should be send out far more robotic missions and keep the flesh and blood on this planet.
Sci-fi is fun to watch and read and I’m aware of many of the methodologies dreamed up to make it possible. But we have limited resources and they’d be better used on unmanned missions. Both in terms of pushing technologies and the reality in dealing with long term exposure to environments that aren’t just hostile to life, but literally antithetical to it.
G.
October 14, 2020
Make the desert blossom as the rose.
E.C.
October 14, 2020
I think that asteroid mining may someday become a thing, and could be quite useful in many ways – but I’m with Sute; I’d rather live on Earth. It was made for us, and if scripture’s to be believed, will be our home eternally.
Yeah, I’m a homebody. I’d rather expand the frontiers of the mind than engage in space travel . . . or any prolonged travel, really. I’d rather make the desert I call home blossom as the rose.
G.
October 14, 2020
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places.
I find your ambitions insufficiently immoderate.
Bookslinger
October 15, 2020
I just listened to a podcast about space exploration:
https://audioboom.com/search?q=john+batchelor+haym+benaroya+dust+gold
(Oct 14, 2020. 2 part episode, id: “570”)
Benaroya said that Apollo was out of sequence; that we should have done LEO space stations (after Mercury/Gemini) before a moon landing. And that made Apollo more expensive. And by achieving the “crown” of a moon landing so soon, we were not in a place to leverage or build upon that in terms of a constantly manned moon facility, because we hadn’t first learned how to live long term in space/LEO.
It’s currently ISS and Space X’s reusable vehicles that are giving experience and knowledge that will enable building and maintaining facilities on the moon and Mars.
He also said the US Space Shuttle was more expensive than Apollo, though I’m not sure if that was a per launch, per pound lofted, or total program cost.