Thoughts on the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11
It was 40 years ago today, when I was just 2 years old, that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. This was, arguably, the greatest technical achievement of the human race. And every year since that historic event, we seem to grow farther away from what was accomplished in 1969. Instead of new manned missions beyond the moon -- or even a base -- we get conspiracy theorists telling us we never even went to moon.
I can only hope that with Project Orion we start to move forward again with manned deep space exploration. While I'd like to see us go to the Moon again, it seems like a bit of a step backward. If we said we were going to the Moon again to set up a base there, then it starts to make more sense. But everyone knows the next real objective is Mars. There's a scientific reason to go there.
They say after the Apollo missions, the people of Earth turned inward again (there wasn't an environmental movement until those pictures of Earth were taken by the astronauts). Perhaps what we really need is to turn outward again -- to explore. Perhaps this would change us as a species in ways we can't even imagine.
I hope so.
Labels: Commentary
