I'd give just everything, she's got me so mesmerized

[sovay]

I have nothing to say about the moon landing from memory; I wasn't born. I watched shuttle launches on television as a child. I had a subscription to Odyssey. (I never won any of their contests, but I did once have a question answered by the robot mascot: I wanted to know why a hypothetical tenth planet of our solar system was always referred to as "Planet X.") I counted down inside the model of the Apollo command module at the science museum. I had clipped out of a newspaper and taped to the wall beside my bed a list of qualifications for the American space program of the 1980's. I built a radio telescope in high school, but I did not go into space.

I don't know if the future I took for granted in my childhood would ever have worked: space stations, moon habitats, Mars colonies. Certainly I hate the way it's framed nowadays by private spaceflight tech bros who seem to feel that there's no need to take care of Earth if a tiny, restricted, super-wealthy we can just jet-set to Mars and trash it similarly. Increasingly it seems to be difficult to separate our species healthily from the biosphere within which it evolved. Manifest destiny in space is as harmful and stupid as manifest destiny anywhere else.

I still think it's wonderful that there were humans on the moon. I hope it will be possible, not under the auspices of the present administration and its narrow definition of humanity, to have humans there again. Even if I'm not one of them; what does that matter? My niece who likes glitter and car parts might also like the stars.

Comments

[sartorias]

Your niece is exactly the sort of person we need for this kind of program.

[sovay]

Your niece is exactly the sort of person we need for this kind of program.

I think so.

[batdina]

It definitely sounds like your niece would be a perfect candidate in my world.

I did watch the moon landing. I remember walking home (my parents had friends with colour tvs even if we didn't have one) and looking up at the moon and imagining the lunar module sitting up there. For a few hours there really was a man in the moon.

[sovay]

It definitely sounds like your niece would be a perfect candidate in my world.

I hope she gets the chance.

I remember walking home (my parents had friends with colour tvs even if we didn't have one) and looking up at the moon and imagining the lunar module sitting up there. For a few hours there really was a man in the moon.

I love that.

[thanate]

Increasingly it seems to be difficult to separate our species healthily from the biosphere within which it evolved.

I once started trying to write a short story comparing failure of extraterrestrial colonies to the thing where it took people ages to get maple trees to grow in Alaska b/c everyone shipped them bare root and they couldn't survive without their soil microbes. I still think it's a reasonable parallel, even if that's more someone else's sort of story to write.

[sovay]

the thing where it took people ages to get maple trees to grow in Alaska b/c everyone shipped them bare root and they couldn't survive without their soil microbes.

I didn't know that about maple trees and Alaska!

[dramaticirony]

Silent Movie GIFs posted a little comparison between shots from Frau im Mond and footage of the Apollo 11 mission. Seems within your area of interest:

https://twitter.com/silentmoviegifs/status/1152605933996052480

[sovay]

Silent Movie GIFs posted a little comparison between shots from Frau im Mond and footage of the Apollo 11 mission.

I'm so glad somebody did that! Yes, thank you, that is of interest to me.

[imagine_that]

My almost 9-yr-old daughter intends to be one of the first people on Mars. A couple years back we were at a talk by an astronaut who had been on ISS who told her that it is her generation that will likely be the right age to do it. She took it very much to heart. She also idolizes Mae Jemison - not just for being astronaut, but also for following all her creative dreams too. She wants to do all her music and stuff and still be one of the first people on Mars!

[sovay]

She wants to do all her music and stuff and still be one of the first people on Mars!

I hope she does it! More astronauts should also be artists.

[csecooney.com]

I remember the Biosphere experiments from grade school. I remember it as an exercise in my imagination; if we could create a habitat artificially, and if people could inhabit such a space peaceably, what might be accomplished with this technology off-world. I don't remember how it failed, or why it failed. I do remember learning that it failed, and grieving it. Now there is the internet, and I am an adult... I should research that.

How times change, and our minds--occasionally--with them.

[csecooney.com]

It was the Biosphere 2 experiment, in Oracle, Arizona!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

Amazing what Google and Wikipedia, which did not exist in 1987 (for me at least) can do.

[sovay]

It was the Biosphere 2 experiment, in Oracle, Arizona!

Did the real-life history match what you had imagined might happen?

Amazing what Google and Wikipedia, which did not exist in 1987 (for me at least) can do.

Oh, my God, I didn't know Steve Bannon had been involved in the second experiment. Speaking of people it's difficult enough just to share the planet with . . .

[starlady]

When I was growing up (and I was dead set on being an astronomer until I was about 16) 2020 sounded so far away, and though it was already looking chancy for Mars, I never thought we'd be where we are today, which is nowhere except low Earth orbit. I never thought I'd agree with so many of the critiques of the space program and societal priorities, either.

I agree that it is good that we went. And I would love to see us go back within my lifetime, particularly if it meant a return to the top tax rate of 91% that existed in 1962.

[sovay]

(and I was dead set on being an astronomer until I was about 16)

Is that the source of your Dreamwidth handle?

I agree that it is good that we went. And I would love to see us go back within my lifetime, particularly if it meant a return to the top tax rate of 91% that existed in 1962.

That definitely couldn't hurt.

[starlady]

The origin of my Dreamwidth handle is even nerdier, actually! Timothy Zahn dedicated one of his Hand of Thrawn duology books (can't remember which, but it was probably the second one) to the fans, including "all the starladies," and I read that book right around the time I was getting into online fandom via theforce.net message boards. So when I needed a username for those, I thought, "right, I'll be starlady!" And added the 38 (which I use on tumblr and LJ) because it was 19 x 2, because The Phantom Menace premiered on May 19, 1999. When I moved over here in closed beta I was able to drop the number.

[sovay]

including "all the starladies," and I read that book right around the time I was getting into online fandom via theforce.net message boards. So when I needed a username for those, I thought, "right, I'll be starlady!"

That's excellent!

[asakiyume]

I was alive when the moon landing happened, but too young to be aware of it.

I was always highly uneasy about the notion of colonies on the moon or Mars; they always seemed hugely vulnerable and the actual places so clearly deadly--I never wanted to go. That hasn't stopped me from enjoying stories about moon and Mars colonies, however!

[sovay]

I was alive when the moon landing happened, but too young to be aware of it.

It's still neat that it was in your lifetime. What's the first space-related thing you can remember?

That hasn't stopped me from enjoying stories about moon and Mars colonies, however!

I really did want to go into space. I read everything NASA-related I could get my hands on. I adored Valentin Lebedev's Diary of a Cosmonaut (1988). It really seemed obvious that I would have the chance to. And now it is the future and it's different.

[asakiyume]

I remember *a* moon flight, but it couldn't have been the first one. Looking at Wikipedia, I'm guessing it might have been Apollo 16 or 17. I remember watching what I thought was the rocket heading to the moon and being told no, that was just an animation. And I remember it took a lot longer than I thought it should. (I think I probably wanted it to be a matter of minutes.)

[sovay]

And I remember it took a lot longer than I thought it should. (I think I probably wanted it to be a matter of minutes.)

It takes minutes in the movies!

[labingi]

I don't know if the future I took for granted in my childhood would ever have worked: space stations, moon habitats, Mars colonies. Certainly I hate the way it's framed nowadays by private spaceflight tech bros who seem to feel that there's no need to take care of Earth if a tiny, restricted, super-wealthy we can just jet-set to Mars and trash it similarly. Increasingly it seems to be difficult to separate our species healthily from the biosphere within which it evolved. Manifest destiny in space is as harmful and stupid as manifest destiny anywhere else.

Well said. Based on the rec of a friend (who well-meaningly trashed my own writing for having classic M-class planet-like terraforming), I've recently read Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora, and its discussion of space colonization was revelatory for me. My own SF universe still has bazillions of (well about 400) terraformed planets/moons, but I'm really trying to reframe how I write about them to be more explicit about how tenuous Earth-based life will be on them and how they were multi-thousand-year project.

[sovay]

My own SF universe still has bazillions of (well about 400) terraformed planets/moons, but I'm really trying to reframe how I write about them to be more explicit about how tenuous Earth-based life will be on them and how they were multi-thousand-year project.

That sounds both narratively responsible and fun to read.

[kore]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/science/shipwreck-archeology-shipwreck.html?

OT but this seemed like a Sonya type story....

[sovay]

OT but this seemed like a Sonya type story....

And I hadn't seen it! Thank you.

(I also wanted to explore the deep sea.)