40 years ago today, two human beings landed on the moon. That is truly incredible. Now we can look up at the night sky and say, "we have sent men there."
During our official welcome ceremony at UTS, the Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Ross Milbourne, mentioned the Apollo 11 landing as one of the most fantastic technological achievements of mankind, an example of the great things that can be accomplished with science. As an engineer, I cannot agree with him more. I grew up fascinated with the space program (yeah, I went to Space Camp...). And on this 40th anniversary of the moment that captivated the world, I am reminded again why I am an engineer.
I want to be a part of something that fantastic, something that will advance human technology beyond what we ever believed possible. Something that will someday inspire a whole new generation of engineers to go even farther than I can dream of.
I choose to be an engineer because I want to make the impossible possible. I am reminded of a speech given at Rice some 47 years ago...
"But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
We choose to do the hard things because if we only do the easy things we never challenge ourselves, and therefore never better ourselves. I choose to take on the impossible. I do not believe in impossible. Like Rice, I believe that "there is no 'what if' that can't become a 'what is.'"
That is why I am an engineer.
Here's to doing the impossible
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