Every available black and white TV set in my school had been either wheeled or man-handled down to the large room next to the school canteen. Although at the age I was then and having lots of other teenagery things bursting in on my mind, I remember the feeling of something momentous unfolding in front of my eyes as I beheld the indistinct ghostly and grainy image of Armstrong slowly and haltingly making his way down the lunar lander’s ladder before hopping down onto the surface and uttering the now famous words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
So why have we been spending decades slowly and cautiously mincing our way in low earth orbit while sending our technological emissaries on forays around the solar system?
It took just three or four years for humanity to lose interest in the Apollo moon mission magic routine. “Routine” is what they had become in people’s minds and bored people with short attention spans soon crave new distractions.
Not enough people had earlier on asked the question: Why were we going to the moon? What exactly was the rationale? Landing a man on the moon seemed to be a national goal set by a deceased US President almost a decade before. It seemed to be more a part of a national and ideological race with a rival power to prove just who was in fact superior.
Despite some current retrospective 50th anniversary commentary, science and the quest for knowledge did not appear to be the main motivating force behind the moon landing mission. Once the competition had been won by one side, what then? The loser was almost bankrupted while the winner did not have limitless pockets of cash to throw at some place 300.000 kilometers distant, and for what return?
Much has been made about the unifying aspect of the first manned moon landing mission. Yes, it did bring a large proportion of the world’s population together to watch and listen and marvel at mankind’s greatest adventure. However, this sense of unity of purpose and destiny as a species occupying a fragile blue marble hanging in the immensity of space really only lasted but a moment in time. It was soon replaced by the usual round of wars, national rivalries, tribalism, political corruption, corporate greed, environmental degradation, economic inequality and the individual day-to-day grind of survival.
With the 50th anniversary commemoration we have a few days of wall-to-wall media saturation as is usually the case with most major events these days. Yes, it’s a time to pay tribute to the lunar pioneers and explorers and their wonderful achievement. It’s also a time for the usual outpourings of sentiment, cliches, flag waving, chest-swelling national pride and manufactured memories and recollections. It also feels as if it's time to reflect on our time by comparing it with and reflecting on a time in the past that actually managed to gather its human and technical resources together to accomplish something that has not since been surpassed.
Cheer up! All is not lost. Messiah Musk will deliver us all to the heavenly spheres by performing miracles that will turn science fiction into science fact, all at a special discount price! Hallelujah!
The corporate clergy and military ministry lurk in the background performing rites designed to bring about the corporatization and militarization of chunks of space. Lunar real estate and Martian mines are up for grabs. The high ground has to be held the better to keep an eye on friends and enemies alike and if needed deal them a devastating strike!
The political priesthood powered by the polls and the faith and adulation of their congregations, look to the heavens and care not where we go – to the moon, to Mars or back to the moon, because they think it is a part of Mars – just as long as they too soar ever upward to the very stars!
Much has been made about the unifying aspect of the first manned moon landing mission. Yes, it did bring a large proportion of the world’s population together to watch and listen and marvel at mankind’s greatest adventure. However, this sense of unity of purpose and destiny as a species occupying a fragile blue marble hanging in the immensity of space really only lasted but a moment in time. It was soon replaced by the usual round of wars, national rivalries, tribalism, political corruption, corporate greed, environmental degradation, economic inequality and the individual day-to-day grind of survival.
With the 50th anniversary commemoration we have a few days of wall-to-wall media saturation as is usually the case with most major events these days. Yes, it’s a time to pay tribute to the lunar pioneers and explorers and their wonderful achievement. It’s also a time for the usual outpourings of sentiment, cliches, flag waving, chest-swelling national pride and manufactured memories and recollections. It also feels as if it's time to reflect on our time by comparing it with and reflecting on a time in the past that actually managed to gather its human and technical resources together to accomplish something that has not since been surpassed.
Cheer up! All is not lost. Messiah Musk will deliver us all to the heavenly spheres by performing miracles that will turn science fiction into science fact, all at a special discount price! Hallelujah!
The corporate clergy and military ministry lurk in the background performing rites designed to bring about the corporatization and militarization of chunks of space. Lunar real estate and Martian mines are up for grabs. The high ground has to be held the better to keep an eye on friends and enemies alike and if needed deal them a devastating strike!
The political priesthood powered by the polls and the faith and adulation of their congregations, look to the heavens and care not where we go – to the moon, to Mars or back to the moon, because they think it is a part of Mars – just as long as they too soar ever upward to the very stars!
Then there are the very optimistic prophets of science with their predictions for our triumphant return to the moon by 2024; moon bases by the 2030’s; manned missions to Mars by the 2040’s or sooner! They might do better by learning from the lousy track record of biblical prophets of old who predicted the end of the world and got it wrong time and time again.
Just imagine if all of the human and technical resources of the kind that were marshaled for the manned moon landing were committed on a global level today and redirected toward solving the problems that currently bedevil the world - the only place in the whole universe we can call home. Science fiction would indeed become science fact whereby we could be occupying a fragile blue marble hanging in the immensity of space but one in which poverty and inequality has been abolished; where everyone has the right to live in peace and security; where we have access to meaningful and productive employment, free education, adequate food, clothing and shelter; democratic, representative and accountable government; economic relations based on fairness and equity; freedom of worship, thought and expression; and freedom from racial, gender and age discrimination.
No doubt, when our little nostalgic dip into the reviving waters of human mythology ends as quickly as it begins, we’ll once again shift our collective gaze back onto our screens and return to the world of wars, national rivalries, tribalism, political corruption, corporate greed, environmental degradation, economic inequality and the individual day-to-day grind of survival. There'll no doubt be another “routine” space walk outside the ISS, another “routine” moon mission and another “routine” mission to Mars. And there'll be bored people with short attention spans craving new distractions. There will also be even fewer of us left who can remember the first manned moon landing at the next commemoration – whenever that will be.
©Chris Christopoulos 2019
