The greatest man in History?

In terms of his achievement, Neil Armstrong, who died at the weekend aged 82, might qualify as the greatest man who ever lived. Allow me to explain. From the objective standpoint of an extra-terrestrial society, there are three markers for the civilisation of any culture:
1. When it is first able to climb beyond the atmosphere of its planet, escape its gravitational embrace and travel across the airless, icy vacuum of space and walk upon the most adjacent planetary body.
2. When it is able to construct a craft capable of carrying one or more of its number the far greater distance to the next proper planet in its solar system.
3. When it is capable of bridging the immense distances involved and literally reach out to the stars.

Neil Armstrong was the first human to leap the first giant hurdle and thereby put humanity on the map of galactic culture. Last weekend too, the Mars rover "Curiosity" started sending the first high resolution images from the Red Planet, in a prelude to what must surely come soon (if not in my lifetime); namely landing human beings on Mars. It would be wonderful if the USA, China, Russia and Europe could get together for such an enterprise, for if the Earth worked together, there would be almost nothing we could not achieve. But for that to happen, as Arthur C Clarke has pointed out, the human race has first to realise that the exploration of space is the one activity that is as exciting as war. Then we could begin the quest to fill criterion no. 3 and journey to the stars.