YOU HAD an article about students learning space science some time ago. It reminded me of 1957 at school.

I gained a prize in music, in the days when we didn’t get a bucketload of GCSE grades with every exam.

Prize winners in those days were given book tokens, and we had a trip to town to chose a subject. Mine was astronomy, which was something new and interesting to look at.

Fast forward 57 years and we have to settle for spinning round our own planet, which is a bit of a let down, and we can’t even find an aircraft in our own air space.

It makes you wonder if very distant planets have come across the same problem of light year travel, when it would be your great-great grandson who finally arrives at a far away destination, but will need a filling station in order to get back.

Allan Denney, Catesby House, Holgate Road, York.