Ray Bradbury's National Geographic Essay

I like to think of the cosmos as a theater, yet a theater cannot exist without an audience, to witness and to celebrate. Robot craft and mighty telescopes will continue to show us unimaginable wonders. But when humans return to the moon and put a base there and prepare to go to Mars and become true Martians, we--the audience--literally enter the cosmic theater. Will we finally reach the stars? -- Ray Bradbury, National Geographic