{"id":622,"date":"2009-12-17T14:15:51","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T12:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=622"},"modified":"2015-04-07T08:27:37","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T06:27:37","slug":"advice-from-buzz-the-rocket-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/advice-from-buzz-the-rocket-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice from Buzz, the Rocket Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you remember what you were doing back in July? I do. I was glued to<\/span> the TV, watching all the documentaries about the first moon landing 40 years ago in 1969. It was the greatest technical achievement in human history. Watching recent interviews with the former Apollo astronauts \u2014 Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin<\/a> in particular \u2014 helped to reawaken<\/span> some of the excitement I’ve always felt about this.<\/p>\n

I can’t think of the July 20 anniversary, though \u2014 when Aldrin and Neil Armstrong put the first footprints on the moon \u2014 without remembering the December 17 anniversary at the same time. December 17, 1972 was the day when the last footprints were left on the moon.<\/b> The American presence there lasted three years and five months. We haven’t been back since. No one has.<\/p>\n

It’s a sad thought.<\/p>\n

The three Apollo missions that were supposed to follow Apollo 17<\/i> were declared unnecessary. The US had made its point<\/span> \u2014 that it could get to the moon before the Soviet Union. Contrary to popular speculation, there were no plans \u2014 and there never had been<\/i> \u2014 to establish permanent bases up there<\/b>. The moon landings had nothing to do with science; they were about a military show of strength.<\/p>\n

From a scientific perspective, NASA was right<\/b> to concentrate on studying the planet we live on instead. Imagine if all the recent industrialization and man-made environmental changes had happened without any way of monitoring them from orbit<\/span>. It was also worth getting space travel, at least in low Earth orbit, down to a science<\/span>. Like many 16th-century explorers, a number of cosmonauts<\/a> \u2014 as well as astronauts<\/a> \u2014 died in the name of progress.<\/p>\n

NASA, often in partnership with the European and Japanese space agencies, has also taken us to unimaginable destinations<\/span>: to comets, asteroids and distant moons of Saturn. And on our own moon, it’s finally found something useful: a small, but measurable, amount of water<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More is being done in space than ever before; and yet, something is still missing.<\/b> The greatly reduced crew of the space station never announced any breakthroughs<\/span> involving new alloys<\/span> or polymers<\/span> that would lead to manufacturing in space. The costs, risks and technological hurdles<\/span> are still too great for private companies to want to go up there. NASA, too, has woken up to the fact that a return to the moon will require very long missions and completely new technology.<\/p>\n

Tests have begun on the next-generation Ares rocket<\/b> that will carry astronauts first to the moon (possibly in 2019) and then to Mars (possibly in 2029). It will be a proud day for Americans if that happens. But as Buzz Aldrin reported<\/a> last month, the first Ares test was a farce<\/b>. The rocket wasn’t ready, so NASA tested an old rocket instead and pretended it was a new one.<\/p>\n

Some things under Barack Obama aren’t any different from things under George W. Bush. After several failed tests of its “missile defense system”, the Bush administration simply declared the system ready anyway. Poland and the Czech Republic were fooled<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Buzz Aldrin makes the case for<\/span> rethinking the whole Mars program and doing it right, with the help of private industry. This will, of course, cost money. It’ll also require considerable<\/span> optimism, good reasons, and the right PR to get public support. Aldrin’s new rap song is one small step.<\/p>\n