September 2014 Auction Ends Thursday, September 25th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/25/2014
Ray Bradbury hand-corrected typed opinion statement on the Mars Pathfinder. Document, corrected for minor errors reads in full, ''What does the Martian Pathfinder Lander mean to me? A chance for us to re-new ourselves in Space. We have been too long away. The Shuttle circumnavigating the skies above Earth has been all very well and good, and has provided us with geographical insights into our present and past. But still, the spirit of Apollo has been missing. Traveling at supersonic speeds three hundred miles above our continental spreads is circling our navels. We must [handwritten] 'move out' again. And the Pathfinder leads the way. The fact is, we should never have left the Moon. We should have stayed and put down roots and made a seedbed settlement from which to launch ourselves yet further into Space, and gone on to Mars long years ago. For I have been using the best description in my lectures for several years now. And it goes like this: Witness and celebrate. We have been put here in the center of the Cosmos, circling a nameless sun, to look upon the Universe, to gasp with wonder, to marvel at the impossibilities, and to celebrate Existence. If all else around us is dead matter, and it is, it is, then we must be the incredible eyes that see, the hand that reaches, the mind that interprets, and the soul that glories in our mysterious position in an insolvable billion billion light-year outreach that knows no limits, no ends.'' Single-page document measures 8.5'' x 11''. Near fine. With a COA from the Ray Bradbury estate.
Ray Bradbury Hand-Corrected Typed Position Statement on the Mars Pathfinder -- ''...technologies and machines are not enough, are they. They human eye must see and know and tell...''
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