Nozzles, what a brilliant post.
I would have prefaced your thank-you list with Richard Pearse, but you have humbled such sentiments into silence.
Your questions raise further questions, because if it transpires that signs of life, present or former, are discovered shortly in other parts of the solar system, history and religion will be thrown into a flat spin.
Who then will provide stability of thought and action to a troubled world? Probably pilots; as we soar above the masses (no elitism intended) we get to see the bigger picture, and we get to see beyond the horizons of others.
Perhaps as we slip the surly bonds and touch the face, we are priveliged to understand the greater design, and to help others understand it too.
I echo your sentiments - thank you for flight, and for the marvelous future which awaits us all up beyond the clouds - in more ways than one.
Respect, Sir.