40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Rant
Rant?!? What fault do I find in this historic achievement?
Well… I’ll tell you.
My age cohort and I represent what should be amongst the last humans able to say, with codgerly inflection: “Why, I was born BEFORE Mankind ever set foot on another world.”
Yeah, we can still say it. But it doesn’t really have the punch it should have now, does it?
Why?
It took humanity only 66 years to go from the Wright Brothers Flyer to the Eagle landing at Mare Tranquillitatas. Even if we decide to go ahead and return to the Moon in 2020, it will have been FIFTY years to merely repeat what has been done before. I was in pre-school when Eugene Cernan of Apollo 17 became the last person to walk on the Moon. My children are now out of pre-school and nobody has dared to even leave Low Earth Orbit in all that time. More than a full generation of humanity hasn’t been able to touch the achievements of their forebears in terms of Human Space Exploration.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for robotic exploration and I feel a great affinity for fellow-cohort-member Steve’s mechanical siblings. I felt the thrill at being in the auditorium waiting for the signals to return from Mars indicating a successful landing. Aside from being mighty achievements in their own right, these machines are the essential bricks that pave the way for Humans to come. But they aren’t there. The humans, that is. We’ve been stuck mucking about in Low Earth Orbit.
Once upon a time, Neil Armstrong was the biggest damn Hero on the planet. People looked up at the Moon and universally marveled. They were *inspired*. They wanted to go to the places nobody had yet been, or build the fantastic machines that took them there. Nowadays, though… That sort of attention and admiration is reserved almost exclusively for athletes and performers who pretend to be heroes.
So yeah, I’m ranting. Hopefully the *next* generation will smarten up and empower leaders with Spirit who will seize the Opportunity to launch us on an Endeavor of their own that might actually be memorable 40 years down the road.
Well… I’ll tell you.
My age cohort and I represent what should be amongst the last humans able to say, with codgerly inflection: “Why, I was born BEFORE Mankind ever set foot on another world.”
Yeah, we can still say it. But it doesn’t really have the punch it should have now, does it?
Why?
It took humanity only 66 years to go from the Wright Brothers Flyer to the Eagle landing at Mare Tranquillitatas. Even if we decide to go ahead and return to the Moon in 2020, it will have been FIFTY years to merely repeat what has been done before. I was in pre-school when Eugene Cernan of Apollo 17 became the last person to walk on the Moon. My children are now out of pre-school and nobody has dared to even leave Low Earth Orbit in all that time. More than a full generation of humanity hasn’t been able to touch the achievements of their forebears in terms of Human Space Exploration.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for robotic exploration and I feel a great affinity for fellow-cohort-member Steve’s mechanical siblings. I felt the thrill at being in the auditorium waiting for the signals to return from Mars indicating a successful landing. Aside from being mighty achievements in their own right, these machines are the essential bricks that pave the way for Humans to come. But they aren’t there. The humans, that is. We’ve been stuck mucking about in Low Earth Orbit.
Once upon a time, Neil Armstrong was the biggest damn Hero on the planet. People looked up at the Moon and universally marveled. They were *inspired*. They wanted to go to the places nobody had yet been, or build the fantastic machines that took them there. Nowadays, though… That sort of attention and admiration is reserved almost exclusively for athletes and performers who pretend to be heroes.
So yeah, I’m ranting. Hopefully the *next* generation will smarten up and empower leaders with Spirit who will seize the Opportunity to launch us on an Endeavor of their own that might actually be memorable 40 years down the road.
Labels: Rant
posted by Dyrk | 4:52 PM
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