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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.7) jonnynexus | |
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I just finished watching a documentary in which a group of men describe something great they once did on our behalf. The men were Apollo astronauts, and the great thing they did was to make nine voyages to the Moon between 1968 and 1972. I think nothing symbolises the degree to which we, humanity, did something great and then, unbelievably, chose to not repeat it, than the fact that these men are now old. It was a long time ago that we went to the Moon, and I think it will be a long time before we return. I think that perhaps the reason why so many people now believe that we never went is because it hardly seems plausible that we would go, and then never return. What happened to the Space Age? What happened to our cities on the Moon? What happened to the future? And being reminded of all that made me recall a family conversation we had a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about our earliest memories, and my elder brother Jim told us that his earliest memory was of being led out into our garden by our mum, and having her point at the Moon and tell him that there were men up there. That was during the Apollo 11 mission, when he would have been just over three. Upon hearing that, I did a quick mental calculation. When Apollo 17 made the final landing on the Moon, I would have been a few months over three myself (It was three years later, and I'm three years younger than my brother). Why had she not taken me out to see the men on the Moon, then? I asked, slightly upset. When Apollo 11 landed, I knew it was Jim's first chance to see a Moon with men on it, she told me. But when Apollo 17 landed, I never dreamed for an instant that it might, perhaps, be your last. Tags: space
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OK, whilst it's somewhat unfair of me to make any presumptions regarding Prof. Lewis' work without reading it, I feel the need to point out that we are going back to the moon with Apollo tech.
Check out the NASA website. They are retiring the Space Shuttle in favour of Ares, a new multi-stage rocket system designed to combine the best parts of the Shuttle and Apollo. It's designed with the intention of launching missions to the moon and to Mars (hence Ares, who was named Mars by the Romans).
And to respond to Jonny's original post; I agree with your sentiment absolutely, but I'd also like to offer you the joyous knowledge that things are a-changin'. A new space race is gearing up as we speak:
In 2 years time Virgin will begin space tourism, launching their privately owned space ship, The Enterprise, with William Shatner aboard the first flight. India has begun launching satellites, and is offering space on their regular launches to other nations. The XSpace Project continues to produce promising results of it's own. And that's before we get to the big three:
China has launched their first successful space mission, and put a probe in orbit around the moon to map "every squeare inch". They intend to have a fully functional moon base and Helium-3 mining operation by 2010. This is probably an over-ambitious estimate, but pad by around 5 years and you'd be betting on good odds. Better yet, their announcement on this subject can essentially be paraphrased as "The moon is full of money, and we're taking it." which is sure to get the Americans geared up for a new space race.
Indeed, the US has declared plans to have a functional moon base of their own by 2025. Russia is also back in the game, gearing up their space projects once more, as part of their "grand return to power" that Putin has been orchestrating. They have their own plans for a moonbase, with a time frame that roughly matches that of China and the US.
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| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: January 11th, 2011 09:21 pm (UTC) |
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