Mooning You
Mankind was on his way! We’d be getting off the planet and exploring new worlds! My science fiction dreams were coming true! Well... maybe.
11 or 12 people set foot on the moon after that. They quit televising it after the 3rd or 4th because people lost interest and the Vietnam war was beginning to dominate the news because of “American Imperialism.” Then we quit going to the Moon altogether. It took us another 10 years before we got a space station going.
In 1978, a movie called “Capricorn One” debuted where NASA “fakes” a mission to Mars and the conspiracy crowd had a field day with it, stating that the idea actually came from their faking the Moon landing (repeatedly proven false because you can, with a fairly good telescope, see the lunar landing sites and all the junk left behind if you know where to look - but nothing is harder to kill than a bad false rumor among those that choose not to let facts get in the way of their theories). Ron Goulart, a noted Science Fiction Satirist and Ken Follett, a suspense novelist, both “novelized” the screenplay that same year. America lost interest in going off-planet and the 80’s - the ME decade - began. We used all the technical gadgets and advances provided by NASA without a thought about their origin (integrated circuits; personal computers; miniaturized, powerful radios and portable video cameras, just to name a few!) and then cut NASA’s budget because “it was a waste of money.”
We’ve limped along with the space freighter… erm, shuttle… and a pitiful excuse for a space station, but America lost it’s spirit when we gave in to the political correctness police and “Buzz” Aldrin uttered the infamous words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
He should have said, “I hereby claim this portion of the Moon in the name of the United States of America!”
Yes, the world would have howled. There would have been shouts of “American Imperialism” and all sorts of criticism.
But we would have been on the Moon right now (where I wanted to retire). It would have also put the space-race on full burner instead of putting it back on “pilot light.”
Instead, all we have are 40 year old videos of a dream.
11 or 12 people set foot on the moon after that. They quit televising it after the 3rd or 4th because people lost interest and the Vietnam war was beginning to dominate the news because of “American Imperialism.” Then we quit going to the Moon altogether. It took us another 10 years before we got a space station going.
In 1978, a movie called “Capricorn One” debuted where NASA “fakes” a mission to Mars and the conspiracy crowd had a field day with it, stating that the idea actually came from their faking the Moon landing (repeatedly proven false because you can, with a fairly good telescope, see the lunar landing sites and all the junk left behind if you know where to look - but nothing is harder to kill than a bad false rumor among those that choose not to let facts get in the way of their theories). Ron Goulart, a noted Science Fiction Satirist and Ken Follett, a suspense novelist, both “novelized” the screenplay that same year. America lost interest in going off-planet and the 80’s - the ME decade - began. We used all the technical gadgets and advances provided by NASA without a thought about their origin (integrated circuits; personal computers; miniaturized, powerful radios and portable video cameras, just to name a few!) and then cut NASA’s budget because “it was a waste of money.”
We’ve limped along with the space freighter… erm, shuttle… and a pitiful excuse for a space station, but America lost it’s spirit when we gave in to the political correctness police and “Buzz” Aldrin uttered the infamous words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
He should have said, “I hereby claim this portion of the Moon in the name of the United States of America!”
Yes, the world would have howled. There would have been shouts of “American Imperialism” and all sorts of criticism.
But we would have been on the Moon right now (where I wanted to retire). It would have also put the space-race on full burner instead of putting it back on “pilot light.”
Instead, all we have are 40 year old videos of a dream.