They Built Ships of the Line

"For one thing this century will in after ages be considered to have done in a superb manner and one thing I think only. . . it will always be said of us, with unabated reverence,`They built ships of the Line.' Take it all in all, a ship of the Line is the most honorable thing that man as a gregarious animal has ever produced. By himself, unhelped, he can do better things than ships of the line; he can make poems and pictures, and other such concentrations of what is best in him. But as a being living in flocks, and hammering out, with alternate strokes and mutual agreement, what is necessary for him in those flocks to get or produce the ship of the line is his first work. Into that he has put as much of his human patience, common sense, forethought, experimental philosophy, self control, habits of order and obedience, thoroughly wrought handwork, defiance of brute elements, careless courage, careful patriotism, and calm expectation of the judgement of God, as can well be put into a space of 300 feet long by 80 broad. And I am thankful to have lived in an age when I could see this thing so done. "
---John Ruskin, 1851

Every age has it's "ship of the line". Whether it be the Pyramids, the Parthenon, the Panama Canal or Apollo. Indeed, even as Ruskin wrote those lines, the old three-deckers that had fought at Trafalgar and the Nile were already being broken up and replaced by the steam-driven ironclads being forged in the satanic mills of the industrial revolution.

Human beings are social animals, and in spite of the heights to which individual human genius is capable of rising, most often the vision of even the most exceptional men must be carried out by the collective effort of the tribe.

It's a common libertarian fantasy, the ubermensch freeholder or entrepreneur, working alone and often against the irrational opposition of big government or big business, succeeds against great odds to conquer the universe, a Triumph of the Will. This particular variant is not even new, there was a TV movie or mini-series a few years ago with the same amateur rocketry theme (starring Andy Griffith, as I recall). But if you look at the real achievements of the race, the inspiration may come from one mind, but the work is always done collectively.

Earth's gravity well is very deep, we can only climb out by standing on each other's shoulders. Perhaps this is the lesson we will get from space, this is a project for the species; not just for a man, but for all mankind.