Its barely been reported. You look all over the news and you can find a ton of reports on a school shooting, on the Kardashians, on the feud between Leo and Marky Mark, on how Courtney Stodden dyed her hair, and all kinds of other stories. A few are less vacuous than celebrity dye-jobs, celebrity feuds, or cheap sensationalist reporting of meaningless violence. But almost no one has bothered to mention that the big story today is that for the first time in 37 years (THIRTY- SEVEN FUCKING YEARS) we (as in "humanity") has again landed on the moon.
It is an unmanned Chinese mission, but that's a step toward their long-term plan of landing people there, building a permanent base there, and making regular transits there, using it as a platform for further solar-system exploration, taking advantage of natural resources there, and setting up a permanent colony there.
You know, everything the human race SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST THIRTY-SEVEN FUCKING YEARS, but that we (this time "we" being "the west") failed to do because of a monumental civilization-fail.
No wonder its been under-reported. Who wants to be reminded of that? Who wants the realization that we totally failed to be at the vanguard of humanity's next natural step in expansion, when we can hear about celebrity hair-dye? At least there we can distract ourselves from our utter sense of shame.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Raleigh Volcano + Brebbia no. 7
It's best for America to just let old astronauts die. Seeing the planet Earth from the Moon does something to a person. It changes them. And such changes can be dangerous for an America's ruling class.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, it's been the big headline on the Drudge Report all day.
ReplyDeleteThe United States stopped going to the moon because we no longer needed to go. The goal was to beat the Soviets in a race with geopolitical implications, not to move humanity as a whole into space. I predict that once the Chinese (and Indians) start making progress towards mining resources on the moon, the US will quickly ramp up a moon program.
Let's hope so. I wonder if the US really has the vision and civilizational strength to even manage it anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think Joesph is right. Once China *starts* building a moon base, the howl of outrage will suddenly make NASA important again. And I can't wait...
ReplyDeleteSpaceX and other new space companies are paving the way to cheap access to near earth orbit. The upcoming Falcon 9 Heavy will have launch price of just below 1,000 a pound. Once in orbit your are halfway to anywhere else. And people figured ways of getting to the moon without having a Saturn V class rocket. Fuel depots for one thing.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I hope you guys are right. My number one priority is that someone, ANYONE from the human race starts to expand out there. But if I had my choice, I'd sort of rather it was a westen democracy rather than a brutal autocratic regime.
ReplyDeleteThe west won't do anything that doesn't line the pockets of someone, unless it becomes a matter of national pride.
ReplyDeleteSo I say, bring on the chinese. Hopefully it spurs everyone else into action.
Bearing in mind that I think pocket-lining is, on the whole, a Good Thing, I'm perfectly happy if private corporations are allowed to pursue profits through lunar (or other space) development. I reject the notion that the human diaspora into space must be government sponsored. If the roadblocks that the US government puts in front of private space companies (largely to artificially preserve NASA's monopoly) were removed, they'd find reasons to go into space and make a profit doing it. And there's nothing wrong with that.
ReplyDeleteI certainly think there's no particular reason why it MUST be governments that make inroads into space.
ReplyDeleteIt can be privately driven, as long as it happens.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, what will likely occur though is that it'll be done by private companies, paid on the tax payers dime.
The general setup of western culture is that private companies do things that can generate a profit, while the gubermint does things that won't generate profit but needs doing.
Of course, in recent years, the non-profit things have increasingly become sources of profits for contractors but any grease keeps the wheel moving, I suppose.
My point is mainly that without external pressure and competition, it seems we're just not going to go.
So if the Chinese are serious about this, that's good. We need that push to get off our tails.