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Forty years ago plus two days, Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the Mare Tranqillitatis and Neil started out on the historic first walk ever on the moon
Readers of my blog have probably noticed that I've tried to follow space-related news, as evidenced by tags like "space science", "space travel", and so on. I am excited by the fact that new space probes are being readied for launch to many different destinations, by established and new spacefaring powers, and the idea of suborbital flights as tourism appeals to me (the idea of suborbital spacecraft as the poor man's ICBM, not so much).
But manned space travel? Space colonization? What's the point, really? (Please please don't cite lunar helium-3.) Yes, active selenological research bases would be nice; yes, a terraformed Mars and clouds of O'Neill habitats at any number of LaGrange points would be fantastic; yes, a world like Tirane serenly and greenly orbiting Alpha Centauri A would be a great place to visit.
But will any of these things happen in my lifetime, or even start to happen? I doubt it. Projects too costly, too difficult to achieve with current technology, and with too little support from the general population aren't going to happen, at least not until human societies become wealthier and more technologically advanced and so convince potential objectors that the project's worth the expense. Why do you think that it took forty years after the Apollo missions before the world as a whole became interested putting people on the Moon? Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union drove the manned missions of the 1960s, and it's worth noting that the abortive Chinese manned space program using Shuguang vehicles was driven by the demons of the People's Republic in the early 1970s. As for the drama of space, well, David Bowie's Major Tom song cycle starts with a man who's a detached if noble hero and makes him into a junkie who's probably also closeted. The mythos of the noble astronaut is dead; space is just another place to live and work and die.
Before I die I can imagine different national bases on the Moon, then, I can easily imagine clouds of unmanned space probes scattered across the greater Solar System, I can even imagine at least one manned landing on Mars. Anything more than that? Silliness.
What do you think?
Readers of my blog have probably noticed that I've tried to follow space-related news, as evidenced by tags like "space science", "space travel", and so on. I am excited by the fact that new space probes are being readied for launch to many different destinations, by established and new spacefaring powers, and the idea of suborbital flights as tourism appeals to me (the idea of suborbital spacecraft as the poor man's ICBM, not so much).
But manned space travel? Space colonization? What's the point, really? (Please please don't cite lunar helium-3.) Yes, active selenological research bases would be nice; yes, a terraformed Mars and clouds of O'Neill habitats at any number of LaGrange points would be fantastic; yes, a world like Tirane serenly and greenly orbiting Alpha Centauri A would be a great place to visit.
But will any of these things happen in my lifetime, or even start to happen? I doubt it. Projects too costly, too difficult to achieve with current technology, and with too little support from the general population aren't going to happen, at least not until human societies become wealthier and more technologically advanced and so convince potential objectors that the project's worth the expense. Why do you think that it took forty years after the Apollo missions before the world as a whole became interested putting people on the Moon? Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union drove the manned missions of the 1960s, and it's worth noting that the abortive Chinese manned space program using Shuguang vehicles was driven by the demons of the People's Republic in the early 1970s. As for the drama of space, well, David Bowie's Major Tom song cycle starts with a man who's a detached if noble hero and makes him into a junkie who's probably also closeted. The mythos of the noble astronaut is dead; space is just another place to live and work and die.
Before I die I can imagine different national bases on the Moon, then, I can easily imagine clouds of unmanned space probes scattered across the greater Solar System, I can even imagine at least one manned landing on Mars. Anything more than that? Silliness.
What do you think?
