40 years ago today Apollo 11 was launched. On Monday it will be the 40th anniversary of the first men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin setting foot on the surface of the moon.
I’m not old enough to remember the moon landings, but it must have been a fantastic time. People must have looked at the stars and thought ‘Our children will be out there’.
Except we’re not. Why not? Why did we take that first step – knock at the door of space exploration and then back away to the confines of our one small fragile world. I can’t help feeling that we should have gone forwards – we should have gone on!!
But in my imagination I’m out there, in the stories that I write. And one of these stories will be coming out soon, for with the anniversary of the Apollo landing comes the launch of the Footprints anthology from Hadley Rille Books.
Watch this space…
Kate - I am old enough to remember (I stayed up all night to watch the descent onto the surface). Yes, it was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteBut the answer to your 'Why not?' is fairly straight forward. It's incredibly expensive, very dangerous and yields hardly anything of scientific value that can't be obtained more cheaply and safely.
It's a lovely dream, but with current technology it doesn't make any sense to do it again.
Oh Brian - surely we shouldn't let practicalities get in the way of a good adventure! :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd of course remote sensing can only tell you so much - sooner or later you're going to need ground truth data.
I really hope I see a man on the moon in my lifetime!