Just imagine what happened on our last hiking day in the mountains. All of a sudden we heard a very loud bang. We nervously looked up to the sky. It was dark and then we saw a huge fireball falling towards us. In a dustcloud we discovered a green Martian shuttle. Seven green Martians stepped out of the ship. One of these small creatures opened his mouth and mumbled: "}%D$&_* y W J S i F X V v > # ' h @ !!!" Thanks to their universal translator we finally understood their robot language. They had aerials instead of hair on their heads and they were small and fat, with big ears like donkeys and three little eyes staring at us. They told us that they are green because it is the colour of hope. The Mars itself is red, of course. We asked the Martians how they came to the earth. They said that they were sponsored by the ESA. They got a great space shuttle. Now they were allowed to travel through the universe and find out more about other planets.
Now we understood how important space research is. It gives us completely new chances to experiment in and with the space. Thanks to organisations like the ESA and new satellites like the XMM we nowadays are able to discover new galaxies and to visit unknown planets. We also can explore inhabited planets. Space technology helps us to find out more about life in the universe. A girl of our class already bought a piece of land on the moon for only 37 $ from a businessman in America. She already plans a house there with a whirlpool. She also wants to set up a football team called MOONIE STARS. At night she would like to lie in the whirlpool with a wonderful view on the earth shining in deep bright blue.
Space travel can help us to get to know different cultures. Perhaps we will get the possibility to meet Aliens. We might even be able to learn their language and to communicate with them. If one day everybody had his own spaceship, we could all meet somewhere in the galaxy, discover alien planets, talk to their inhabitants, trade with them and try to live together in space peacefully.
If in the future the space net is well enough developed, we could go shopping on the moon and come back to the earth by just taking the next space shuttle. Instead of big cities on planet Mars or the moon there will be huge space stations under big glass domes where the spacecrafts can come and go. Of course, we would need the domes to be able to breathe. Everything will be built under domes of glass and carbon fibre.
Astronautics is also a good means to support international cooperation. In the last centuries many countries have become enemies through wars. The new space technology is a new way for all those countries to cooperate again. Poor countries do not have enough money and technology to build their own satellites and shuttles. Other, more industrialized countries could and should support them. Also many new jobs will be created in the space industry. If space programmes are expanded in the future, it will help to reduce unemployment.
Travelling through the space and discovering unknown planets is a unique chance for us. But as long as everyday people are not yet able to surf through the space, green remains the colour of hope: the hope to meet some real green Martians one day.
