Space odyssey

摘要

Millions of people around the world will by now have seen a bright new star in the firmament. The Christmas star perhaps, reappearing two thousand years on? Well, no. The bright new light appeared when NASA astronauts unfurled the solar arrays that power the International Space Station. The event may not be the dawn of Christianity, but it is still portentous. Once completed, the space station will have as much living space as a three-bedroom house. So, as we enter 2001, space travel is not be on quite the scale envisaged in Arthur C. Clarke's novel or Stanley Kubrick's movie. But it was Clarke's contention that in order to advance, humanity should leave the Earth— and in that sense, the odyssey may have begun.