PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES AND THE SPACE CONQUEST
Channel: Jorge Gameiro
Date: 2012-03-01

PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES AND THE SPACE CONQUEST 
DARK RIDE 
Author : Jorge Gameiro
http://picasaweb.google.com/gameiroanimatronics
gameiroanimatronics@gmail.com 
http://www.jorgegameiro.com

A NAVIGATOR STANDS IN FRONT OF A SET IN WHICH WE CAN SEE A CARAVEL CAUGHT UP IN A VIOLENT STORM, WITH SOUNDS OF A STORM AT SEA. THIS TALKING "ROBOT" IS INTERRUPTED TOWARDS THE END OF ITS SPEECH BY THE SOUNDS OF A STORM, WHICH CONTINUES WHILST THE NAVIGATOR SPEAKS, ALTHOUGH AT A LOWER VOLUME.
This space is a tribute to the Portuguese navigators who, in the 15th and 16th centuries, journeyed into previously un-navigated oceans in search of new routes and undiscovered lands.
As Bartolomeu Dias drew his armada closer to the Cape of Storms, a cloud of a terrifying blackness formed over them in the sky, taking on the outline of a hugely powerful monstrous being. The deformed and bearded figure had an expression of threatening evil on its face, with dirty, matted hair and filthy yellow teeth in its black mouth. In a booming and terrifying voice, the giant threatened the sailors who had invaded his waters, which for many long years had been his and his alone.

He hated the Portuguese explorers, envying them their mobility, audacity and excellence. He prophesized that they would suffer disasters, shipwrecks and loss of human life if they dared to pass beyond the Cape of Storms. The destruction of this mythical being, Adamastor, created by Portuguese poet Luis de Camões in his epic poem of the Portuguese discoveries, Os Lusíadas, represented the triumph of the Portuguese over the brute force of nature, as well as the mastery of the seas that became theirs when they dared to traverse the Cape of Storms. 

SPEECH MADE BY THE ANIMATRONIC ASTRONAUT:

5 centuries after the Portuguese had embarked on their voyages of discovery, bringing lands and trade routes to the eyes of the world,
Mankind began its conquests and adventures in space. Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarine was the first man to orbit our planet, and in 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. It was while he was walking on the moon that he uttered the famous phrase: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind".
We are still in the very earliest days of the conquest of space. As in the days of the first discoveries of the 15th century, enigmas, dangers and insurmountable barriers have created a gap between the dreams of mankind  and the adventures in space that are actually possible. As in the days of the navigators and Argonauts of long ago, those difficulties will be overcome. Human tenacity, combined with increasingly sophisticated technological resources, will undoubtedly take us travelling in space, building colonies on other planets such as are only imagined today in the pages of science-fiction books.