Doing Something Again For The First Time
Keith’s note: I first published this two years ago. Yesterday both Jim Bridenstine and Elon Musk noted that they were not alive when humans walked on the Moon – so they do not have memories of that event. Alas, so much of how NASA has conveyed the importance of Artemis – and the way that the media describes it – seems to harken back to events that my fellow Baby Boomers and I resonate with. What is often neglected – and is therefore needed – as Bridenstine noted, is an effort to create new memories for a whole new generation for whom seeing people walking on the Moon is a novelty. Bridenstine and Musk also spoke in global terms with regard to the value and impact of seeing humans walk on another world- so I have added some global figures as well.
Keith’s original 28 November 2017 note (update): There is a lot of talk these days about yet another pivot in America’s civilian space policy. This time it is “back” to the Moon. Mars is not off the agenda – but it is not moving forward either. Personally I think we have unfinished business on the Moon and that creating a vibrant cis-lunar space infrastructure is the best way to enable humans to go to many places in the solar system – including Mars. Regardless of your stance on this issue, a common refrain about going back to the Moon – starting with President Obama is that “We’ve been there before”.
Humans first reached the South Pole by an overland route in 1911/1912. While we visited the pole by plane in the intervening years, no one traversed Antarctica’s surface again until 1958. 46 years between Antarctic polar traverses. Why did we go back to do something – again – in a similar way – to a place “we’ve been [to] before” after 46 years? Because there was still something of interest there – something we’d only had a fleeting exposure to – and we had developed new ways to traverse polar environments. James Cameron revisited the Challenger Deep in 2012 – after a human absence of 52 years. Why? See above. It is understandable that explorers seek to explore new places and not redo what has been done before. There is only so much funding and there are still so many places yet to be explored. But it is also not uncommon for explorers to revisit old, previously visited locations with new tools – and new mindsets.
Look at the stunning imagery Juno is sending back of Jupiter. Compare that to what we got from Galileo – and Voyager – and Pioneer. Why send yet another mission to the same destination unless, well, you have better tools – tools that enable the pursuit of ever greater exploration goals.
I was 15 when humans first walked on the Moon. The generations who have followed mine have never seen humans land and walk on the Moon. Indeed a lot of them seem to think it never happened. But American space policy is made by Baby Boomers (and older) population cohorts so we just operate on our own biases i.e. been there, done that.
Take a look at the chart below (Source: CIA based on UN data). More than half of the Americans alive today never saw humans walk on the Moon – as it happened – including Administrator of NASA, the head of SpaceX, and the entire 2013 and 2017 NASA astronaut classes. If you look at the global chart (Source: CIA based on UN data) you will see that perhaps 2/3 of humanity was not alive. If/when we go back to the Moon in the next 5-10 years the number of people with no personal memory of humans walking on another world will increase at a rate of 15,000 an hour. For them these future Moon landings will be THEIR FIRST MOON LANDINGS. That’s billions of people waiting to see what I saw in 1969. Has anyone stopped to think of what the impact of this will be? We need to be thinking of this not in terms of Baby Boomer nostalgia but rather as a new adventure for billions.
Just sayin’
Doesn’t seem like a lot of progress is being made. Orion and SLS are still sometime years in the future. I cannot imagine why it had taken this long. Artemis is all about landing a woman on the Moon-great, except mainly I keep hearing stories about why Gateway is the critical step-not sure why-and I have yet to see a good set of requirements or succinct goals for Artemis, not to mention is the lander in development? No signs after 2 years. I am more inclined to listen to Mr. Musk and hope we’ll see Starship fly within a year.
Yes, Elon Musk is the best hope for giving this generation its Apollo moment, and since it’s a private venture it will hopefully since the message that frontiers are not really the domain of government but of private ventures leading the way and governments following.
The way things are going we will get an Apollo Moment, and not much else.
NASA has become very disappointing and unreliable, not just in the last 2 years, but in the last 20.
Blame congress and each president since Apollo got cancelled.
NASA provides a lot of national pride and politicians love to applaud the successes. However, when it comes to funding, they fail us. Internally, NASA people and processes will more often than not, err on the side of “safety” and conservatism. Analysis usually include hefty margins and worst case scenarios. I blame the 5X5 risk matrix for overly cautious mission managers and chiefs. If we have an accident, the world stops. The president has to make a statement. World leaders have to make statements. It is a big black could over NASA when people die. That’s about it.
Maybe off topic, but I liked this interview.
Administrator Bridenstine spelled it out for Everyday Astronaut.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
By the way, great interview with NASA Administrator. Great job, Tim Dodd.
Wasn’t that Apollo 12?
The Apollo 12 50th anniversary is next month (November 14-24) which most will not know or remember.
Not if you were one of the billions alive today who never saw any lunar landings.
I wonder who is most excited to see progress on humans returning to the Moon…those of us who witnessed Apollo or those who didn’t.
Too many of those who didn’t are more worried about the latest version of Fortnite.
Funny and true! I’ll admit, I only have a vague idea of what this is (a game of some sort), but know it’s a “thing” nowadays. Dang, now you made me curious. I will have to google it and read a bit. =)
Ok, I read a bit….. time-wasting nonsense. Thankfully, I never got into video games. Reminds me a recent air trip. A young lady next to me in a plane, kept his window shade closed the entire flight as we flew across the US on a clear day. Coming in to land in Portland, OR, you fly by a snow capped Mt Hood. Several people in the plane enjoyed the view out the window. She never knew what she missed but I’m sure she got good scores. =)
is there something wrong (inflated) about the world graph ?
1) it seems to show many more than today’s population (7 billion?) does it show all humans who ever lived ??
2) the ratio with the US is much larger than I’d’ve thought … US pop about 400 million (about 1/16th of the global pop) which would about 1/2 the global scale (15 million (US) = 240 million (global) < 400 million (global).
I do appreciate that it is data copied from another source.