Glory Days

Here's a picture of Neil Armstrong, after just landing on the Moon. Can you imagine? You've just entered humanity's history books, forever, as part of one of the greatest achievements of mankind.


Alas! I fear we as a species have lost the stomach for this kind of exploration. The Bureaucrats are in charge now, along with the money men. Thesis: Given all the same technological conditions of 1963, but with today's political environment, I would hazard a 0% chance of repeating this historic act. For, indeed, it was incredibly risky, and could have easily failed. Fun fact to know and share - when the moon missions were flying regularly, there was a massive solar storm that hit the moon and would have killed anyone there, but luckily, Apollo was in between missions.


But again, that poison well....


So, let's focus on the cool: Descent of the Eagle:

Right in the middle is the capsule heading for a touch-down.

And touch-down - look closely in the middle and you'll see Apollo 11. Click for big.
And finally, a thing of beauty, as always, perspective on a grand scale - Earthrise:

Not to be

I realized today I can no longer objectively support manned exploration of space. Shuttle missions, sure. Low orbit tourism, why not. But Mars? The Moon? Why? Either it is purely a ra-ra vanity mission, or there would have to be a pretty important reason to spend that kind of money to send people.

For a fraction of the cost, of course, we can send fleets of robots and landers, probes and satellites. And let's face it: America is broke. It''s hard to justify a vanity project when a debtor.

Now, China on the other hand - they've got the cash to consider a glory grab to the Moon. I hope they go for it, but does it make any sense for them to? I don't see it, other than pure national vanity.

Sadly, my childhood dreams of Moon bases and personal rocket ships will not come to pass in my lifetime, and maybe not for a long time, if ever. Alas, also.

Conspiracy nuts ahoy!

It won't make any difference, I'm sure, but Moon Landing Conspiracy nuts should take note of this photo (and the entire series, here ).

Smack dab in the center of the above picture is the Apollo 11 landing capsule. You can see it's shadow quite clearly. Very cool. But as I said, I doubt it will change any nutjob's mind. I've been learning lately (thanks to the Repuglicans) that cognitive dissonance is not a condition that prevents you from operating in the world. And for the hardcore nutjobs, there is no such thing as proof or evidence or truth. They know what they know, end of story.