This is an occasional series pointing out how despite a continuing stream of ‘if it bleeds it leads’ stories on the news, humans are actually out there doing some amazingly positive things.
Today’s reason is the direct result of human ingenuity, humanity’s inevitable and unquenchable thirst to answer the question, “Why did you climb Everest?”, with the answer, “Because it was there”. This is what we do.
Within single life spans the Wright brothers invented powered human flight in the air (1903) and we sent Yuri Gagarin into space (1961). We’ve still got eight years to go for the next step! But we’re doing well. During the partial eclipse in early 2011 this picture was taken in Oman. And you can clearly make out the international space station in this picture. At the time there were 5 people on board, living in space.
For a high resolution version of this image and the credit information please see this: http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/eclipse110104_solar_transit.html