There's an old riddle wrapped as an aptitude test for officers, asked something like this: You are a lieutenant in charge of a sergeant and three men. You have a flagpole fifteen feet high, and at your disposal are some shovels, a few buckets of sand, and four twenty-foot lengths of rope. What steps do you take to raise the flag? Despite a temptation to overanalyze the problem with complicated procedures, the answer is of course a simple order, "Sergeant get that flagpole up."

Now consider a riddle of physics, wrapped as an aptitude test for intelligent life. You are one from many at the bottom of a deep well. Big rocks strike down the well with a frequency planets must consider but dumb replaceable animals don't. At your disposal is one ladder that points radially in all directions. How do you get out of the well to raise the flagpole? Despite a temptation to overwork the problem the answer is of course, "Step."

After making such noise last week about ISS progressing by leaps and bounds the program unexpectedly lurches to a grinding halt (oops no, that'd be the other SARJ!). Two million kilograms of Atlantis are grounded by a few grams of platinum wire and gold contacts as a feedthru tank connector accustomed to balmy Florida climate can't take zapping by cryo-cold rocket fuel. Suddenly the rocketeers aren't sure if it's full, empty or fixable, but fortunately a little cushion in the construction schedule calms the go fever for Columbus. In the short run it's easy to feel frustrated but applying the ten year rule ("In ten years, will it matter?") helps and there's not much sense in resisting the holidays anyway. In a few weeks more than a few will be eager to see her launch as one final seasonal gift after what is learned in the interim about why she didn't.

That learning involved in achieving such steps, that exercise of determination, that maturation of resolve is the real flagpole. Getting back to the moon or Mars or even the bottom of the ocean for that matter, is not the mission. We're not going anywhere without machines and our machines are as susceptible to Murphy's Law as their makers. Cold hard reality kicks back unpleasantly when something is overlooked (or as in one dire case, rather melted warming reality kicking back as the very planet resists being needlessly squandered). The challenge we face is not overwhelming, and there's just one simple act necessary to get started. Step!