The Bad Astronomer: 45 years since that "one small step"

[LongTomH]

Astronomer Phil Plait celebrates the Apollo 11 moon landing on his blog: From the Earth to the Moon to the Earth:

Forty-five years ago today—and for the first time in human history—human beings set foot upon another world.

............//snip

Every year on this anniversary I reflect a bit on what happened then, how it affected me, and what it means today.

Some people fret over whether it was all worth it, taking this one small step. I have no such doubts; we are better as a species for having ventured into space. The evidence for this is overwhelming, from learning about our planet (and the dangers to it), to the very nature of humanity’s need to explore that is so fundamental to our psychology.

............//snip

When I look back over the time that’s elapsed since 1969, I wonder what we’re doing. I remember the dreams of NASA, and they were too the dreams of a nation: Huge space stations, mighty rockets plying the solar system, bases and colonies on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. Those weren’t just the fantasies of science fiction. We could’ve done them. Right now, today, those dreams could have been reality.

Instead, we let those small-minded human traits flourish. We’ve let politics, greed, bureaucracy, and short-sightedness rule our actions, and we’ve let them trap us here on the surface of our planet.

Want to complain about the cost of space? What about the trillions we've spent on "wars of choice" that we didn't need to fight and the trillions we've spent, and are ready to spend on weapons systems which frequently don't work. We're preparing to spend a trillion 'modernizing' our nuclear arsenal, when we should be phasing out nukes.

For this, and the money we let slip through our fingers by letting corporations evade taxes, we could have had all the things Phil is talking about, and have money to feed the poor of our planet!

[stopbush]

1. We could have done bases on the moon and Mars?

I'm sorry, but one thing we learned from NASA was not only how expensive such things were, but how difficult they would be to do logistically. It's one thing to send a couple of men into space for a week, it's another thing to set off to destinations which are millions of miles away over distances that would take months to traverse.

Sorry, but they were the fantasies of science fiction. We have a better idea what it would entail today than we did then. Significantly, we have gotten away from the need to risk the lives of human beings, asking them to act as expendable props so the Average Joe will be able to connect to a science program on a "human" level. We have learned more about our universe through the Hubbel telescope and deep-space probes than we would have spending money figuring out what we were going to to with the poop building up in a manned space craft headed to Mars.

[longship]

2. But a moon base was possible.

And I think, if it had been funded, we could have had footprints on Mars, too. Not too sure about a Mars base, except something like that would have to be built to put footprints there. You don't spend months to get there and just put footprints.

But Mars is really, really tough. So you might be correct about that.

But we're going to try to get their soon.

And I agree with Phil Plait. We need to do this.

My best.

[stopbush]

3. Most people get their science about space from Star Wars/Trek

and UFO shows on the (not always)History Channel. They have no concept of the distance between planets, let alone that between solar systems or galaxies. They think you simply push a button and engage the warp drive.

They also believe that all alien life forms look humanoid. They're either smoother than humans (and mute, like The Others) or they have lots of bumps on their heads (like Kilngons). The more bumps you have, the more you grunt and the more aggressive you are.

What would a moon base have gained us? Not sure.

[longship]

4. Research, mostly.

Planetary science, which is always worthwhile.

[stopbush]

5. I thought of that, but considering the tons of rocks brought

back from the moon landings and the tons of research done on the space station and the shuttles, I doubt a moon base would have added all that much.

[longship]

6. Well, land a geologist on Mars with a simple rock hammer.

And all the geology all the probes have done could be basically repeated in one mission.

Just give them a rideable rover, the ability to stay alive, and a way back, and you're done.

Oh! Send along a biologist, too, and maybe find life.

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. Tons?!?

Try 842 pounds.

http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/Lunar/index.cfm

[stopbush]

8. Half a ton.

I was spitballing.

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. Barely, but fair enough

As far as any other purposes a moon base could have, mining tops the list, specifically for the materials needed to build large space colonies, among them iron, aluminum, titanium and oxygen, the latter of which tends to come in handy in space



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rock

[cherokeeprogressive]

12. +1

[Orrex]

19. Yeah, but the rocks were only 141 pounds when they left the moon

Try to explain that, Mr. Science!

[A HERETIC I AM]

21. LOL!! Shit! Ya got me

Looks like I'll have to take that trip to the Ark Encounter after all

[davidn3600]

10. Amazing how close minded that kind of thinking is....

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

-President John F. Kennedy

Ever since the dawn of our species we have looked up at the sky and wondered what is out there, how it works, and if we are alone in the universe. That curiosity is never going to end.

Flying an airplane was considered crazy and pointless at one time. The days when Jules Verne wrote stories about airships and flying machines was science fiction. So why did the Wright brothers spend so much time trying to make an airplane work? Was it a waste of time?
Do you have any idea the technology that we enjoy today would not exist without a space program? You call it a waste of money? All that this stuff we have today...microwaves, CDs, smartphones, plastics, MRIs, 747s....they were all science fiction at one time.

"I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars."

-Stephen Hawking

[stopbush]

15. Not closed minded at all. The closed minded people are those

who bemoan our not following a strategy - manned space flight - on a consistent basis over the past 50-some years, as if that was the best or only way to explore space.

What we have done is take advantage of the leaps made in computers and robotics to explore a much vaster region of space than we ever could have with exclusively manned flight over that period. Imagine no Hubble, no Mars probe landings, no Juno. Oh, sure, we could have done both if we had unlimited funds, but we don't.

What will happen is that eventually we will learn enough through our unmanned efforts to help us solve the problems that are unique to manned space flight. That may not happen in our lifetimes or even in a few centuries. But when and if we do figure it out it won't be because scientists insisted that there was one way and only one way to get from Point A to Point B, and that said way was based on 60-year-old imagination and technology.

BTW - please point out where I said the space program was a waste of money, or where I claimed there weren't real benefits from the space program.

[alarimer]

18. We've learned more from the Mars landers than we could ever have learned by putting people on Mars.

They have all outperformed expectations. Humans would not have been able to do as much and at much greater cost.

[edhopper]

20. I agree to an extent

but we could have had a larger permanent space platform in orbit and greater robotic exploration than we do.

[Chathamization]

24. Pretty much. Manned space exploration doesn't make sense beyond SciFi fantasies

It's nice that people finally gave up on the undersea cities fantasy; we'll see when they finally give up on the Mars colony nuttiness.

Space exploration is great, but all manned space exploration does is suck up resources and hamper more productive space exploration efforts. And for no particular use, other than to look cool.

[rug]

11. 47 years ago.

[DrDan]

16. thank you - 1971 sounded wrong

[Warren DeMontague]

13. We will move into space, whether some people like it or not.

Every dime we spend on NASA pays for itself many times over. Science and knowledge is always a good investment.

[KG]

14. let's not forget the moon program was basically an arms race against those russkies.

now that the commies have been vanquished (except in the minds of some DUers) nobody that matters give a shit about the space program.

[Orrex]

17. I'm not a math guy, but wasn't 45 years ago 1971?

This proves that the "landing" was faked, obviously.




And yes--we could fund NASA in perpetuity for a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of what we spend on wasteful military cash cows.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. To Your Last Line

The reason i like that thinking is because the MIC has interwoven itself into the macroeconomy sufficiently that government folks and politicians use that as an excuse as to why we can't cut the pentagon budget. ("Think of the economic impact&quot

But, the space program would involve a whole lot of those same companies. So, the money gets redirected on less bellicose endeavors but very little overall, and only minor regional economic impact would be likely to be felt.

[ansible]

23. China is our only hope now to see mankind resuming space exploration

The lack of political will above all else is why we don't have manned space exploration. Only the chinese are pushy enough to accomplish it these days.