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

[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!