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

[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.