When Captain Picard gives the command "engage". He can choose to send the fantastic "Enterprise E" to any nearby part of our galaxy. At Warp 9 the Enterprise can reach the nearest stars in one day! it would reach the Moon in 0.000887 of a second! And cross our solar system in 26 seconds! Even at the comparative crawling pace of impulse power an Earth Moon trip would take 5.38 seconds. And a tour across our solar system a mere 44 hours.

The reality of our present day space endevours is of course very different. Only one space craft design has left Earth orbit carrying men. This was the combined "Apollo command module" and the "Lunar excursion module". It took several days to reach the Moon. A manned mission to Mars would take a daunting 6 months. And a journey to the nearest Star "Proxima centauri" would take over one hundred thousand years!

Present day spaceflight is fraught with problems, dangers, and frustrating limitations, especialy when compared to the star hopping adventures seen in Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, or voyager. The crew of the U.S.S Voyager can, in fact, think themselves lucky though that they were not cast out to the opposite side of the galaxy in a present day space shuttle. I estimate that their 70 year journey back to Earth as it was initialy, would take them around two and a half million years with todays present propulsion methods. Demonstrating we are a very long way from having a warp engine, and we are indeed a long way from harnessing a power source to accomplish such feats. We are also some way from answering whether anti matter could even provide us with the kick we need to reach the stars at warp. But we do know if we could use anti matter as a power source it would give us a giant leap out into our solar system and maybe beyond.

Just one match box full of anti matter for example could launch a fully loaded space shuttle into orbit!

If all this seems like doom and gloom to you. And you are at this moment tearing up your enrollment forms for starfleet academy. I do have a bit of good news at least. Thanks to some wonderful work and achievements of the worlds space agencies, some of which are very poorly funded. Men and women work hard every day to make the dream of flight through space happen. Let's not forget we have a space station in orbit right now. Of course its not been put there by a federation of planets, but it has at least been built by a federation of countries. Which is a major breakthrough in itself, and one hopes a great omen for the future. An accomplishment that we can all go out at night and watch fly high over our heads in space. And thanks to the Russians amazing "MIR" spacestation we now know man can survive for lenths of time in space, beyond that needed to travel to the nearest planets. And of course men from Earth have walked on another world. The Moon.

Our robot emmisary's have now journeyed to all but one planet in our solar system. And the exciting "Pluto Express" spacecraft is set to make that all nine planets visited when it flies past the distant icy world and out into the deepest reaches of our solar system. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have all given up many secrets to our visiting space probes since the dawn of the space age saw them begin their voyages of discovery. We have landed on Mars five times now. With another three landers leaving Earth this summer to travel and touch down on the Martian surface. We have even landed on Venus and imaged its volcanic surface. All this on the most hostile planet you could ever find yourself standing on. A true "Hell class planet", the poor little "Venera spaceprobe" lasted an hour or so before being fried, crushed, and dissolved by the horrendous venusian atmosphere. And we have even landed on one of the many Asteroids that cross the Earths path everyday, the potatoe shaped asteroid "Eros".

The Galileo spacecraft has sent a probe plummeting beneath the colourful cloud tops of Jupiter, deep into the giant planets atmosphere. It returned much data before being crushed in the harsh environment of what is known in Star Trek as a "Class J" planet. Next year the "Huygens lander" will make contact with the surface of Saturns mysterious moon "Titan". It will image a strange alien landscape that so far has eluded us. Passing space craft have only snapped images of murky cloud tops. And Titan's secrets still lay hidden for now at least under a thick blanket of orange clouds. This is true space exploration. A journey into the unknown. Huygens has been designed to float in an alien ocean, or make a hard landing on an icy surface. Or even make a splattered touch down in a Titanian swamp. All eventualities have to be catered for on an "away mission" to an unknown alien world.

The Voyager and Pioneer probes have now left the solar system of their creation. They have become our first starships. And following voyages past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, they carry a plaque and a recorded message from mankind out into the galaxy ( who knows if either Voyager probe may return one day!? ). Also exciting new technologies such as "Ion propulsion" has seen the spacecraft "Deep Space one" become the fatast propelled machine built by man. Its name and futuristic energy source resinate a Star Trek feel into the real present day world of spaceflight. This small craft reached speeds of nearly 70,000 mph on a journey past Mars to intercept a comet.

All these these wonderful achievments have happened so far in my lifetime. Many if not all of the most stunning ones have happened in your lifetime also. Suggesting we will see stunning sights and experiance wondrous things in space before our time is out. These accomplishments coupled with plans for a manned mission to Mars possibly around 2020. Help bring Star Trek that little bit closer to us. There's many "strange new worlds" within our reach, right here in our own solar system. There may well be "new life" to seek out right here in our own planetary backyard. We might not be ready for a "Star Trek" quite yet. But we are ready for a new era of planetary exploration, just as the human race did in "Star Treks" past.

Mars was colonized in the year 2103 according to Star Trek history. And I believe we are well on course to achieve that. NASA has already planted the flag of the USA at "Utopia Planitia" on Mars. This of course was the location of the ship yards that built the Enterprise D and the USS Defiant. In our present day it is the landing zone of the NASA Viking Mars lander. Which sent back wonderful colour pictures of the Martian surface in the 1970's. This new era will see men and women and not just Machines on Mars. It will also surely see new footprints on the Moon as mankind returns to our nearest neighbour in space. Our primitive spacecaft today can be compared to the early clipperships of Earths oceans. And In exactly the same way as we now re-trace those early sailing ship voyages and fly high above the same oceans in passenger jets. The evolutionary process we have begun will surely see us one day travel among the stars in a starship Enterprise. The important thing is we have begun that journey of discovery. One that will eventualy make Star Trek happen. I hope I speak for everyone when I say, please..."Make it so!"