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39 years...
Jul. 20th, 2008 06:45 pmThirty-nine years ago I rode over to a friends house on my bike and we watched Neil Armstrong step out onto the moon.
In 1974, I and a different friend agreed to meet in 2001 in Luna Citry. And we fully expected that the only problem would be affording it.
Now?
We are maybe equalling the *first* space station we had (Skylab). And we let that crash in 1979 because NASA had put all our eggs in one basket by making deals that killed all other manned and heavy lift missions for the Space Shuttle. So when it wasn't ready to fly in 1979, and Congress couldn't be bothered to fund a mission for boost it into a higher orbit, we took a giant step backwards.
Now? I don't really expect to see manned missions beyond orbits the Shuttle can reach in my lifetime. And if they do happen, I bet they won't be American. Likely Chinese, maybe Japanese.
Looking back on Apollo 11, I'm finding that my mind want to call up the last scene in Planet of the Apes. We didn't blow it up, but we've certainly thrown it away.
And if we aren't careful, we may screw things up badly enough that we never get back out there (if anything happened that kicked us back to WWII level tech or lower, we'd have a hard time building back up because we've used up all the easy to get at metal ores and fossil fuels (except coal).
And the stupidest thing of all is that if we'd gone on and built a moonbase and a decent space station, we'd have learned stuff from their life support systems that'd help with environmental problems on earth.
In 1974, I and a different friend agreed to meet in 2001 in Luna Citry. And we fully expected that the only problem would be affording it.
Now?
We are maybe equalling the *first* space station we had (Skylab). And we let that crash in 1979 because NASA had put all our eggs in one basket by making deals that killed all other manned and heavy lift missions for the Space Shuttle. So when it wasn't ready to fly in 1979, and Congress couldn't be bothered to fund a mission for boost it into a higher orbit, we took a giant step backwards.
Now? I don't really expect to see manned missions beyond orbits the Shuttle can reach in my lifetime. And if they do happen, I bet they won't be American. Likely Chinese, maybe Japanese.
Looking back on Apollo 11, I'm finding that my mind want to call up the last scene in Planet of the Apes. We didn't blow it up, but we've certainly thrown it away.
And if we aren't careful, we may screw things up badly enough that we never get back out there (if anything happened that kicked us back to WWII level tech or lower, we'd have a hard time building back up because we've used up all the easy to get at metal ores and fossil fuels (except coal).
And the stupidest thing of all is that if we'd gone on and built a moonbase and a decent space station, we'd have learned stuff from their life support systems that'd help with environmental problems on earth.
