The riddle of the future demands sharp vision

Here's a riddle: In youth, it has two horns; reaching maturity, the horns disappear. But when it grows older, it once again has two horns. What is it?

The answer is the moon, in a reference to the two sharp points of a crescent moon.

"Tsuki no Hon" (The Moon Watcher's Companion), published in translation by Kawade Shobo Shinsha Publishers, is a delightful book that describes the differing images of this celestial body by ethnic groups around the world.

The diverse "denizens" of the moon range from humans and spiders to rabbits pounding steamed rice into a gooey mochi rice cake. According to a native American folklore, a frog got to the moon when it leaped literally sky-high to escape from a pursuing wolf.

Whether guided by this frog or not, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently discovered significant quantities of water on the moon.

The revelation followed NASA's analysis of dust, vapor and other substances that were generated when the LCROSS's upper stage rocket impacted the lunar surface last month.

It's like another veil has been lifted from the moon. The NASA team was obviously excited by the discovery, which disproved the previous notion that the moon is just an arid planet.

In making the announcement, the team had brought a bucket along to visually demonstrate the amount of water on found the moon, estimated at 12 bucketfuls, or about 90 liters.

Who knows, before too long the day may come when we will be able to taste the ultimate "gourmet moon water."

The revelations reminded me of "From the Earth to the Moon" by pioneering sci-fi writer Jules Verne (1828-1905).

Set in the United States right after the Civil War, Verne's story is about a group who, disappointed that they would no longer be able to use their big guns, propose to shoot a huge cannonball into the moon. The cannonball is actually a space capsule carrying three astronauts.

The tale was pure fantasy when Verne wrote it more than a century ago. Today, lunar missions are real.

From myth to fantasy, and from fantasy to reality, the human race has moved ahead with help from science and technology.

Whether in space exploration or any other field, progress can only keep accelerating. If our government lacks scientific vision, we could miss out on something really important for the future.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 22(IHT/Asahi: November 30,2009)