Today was the 45th anniversary of the first moon landing. It passed largely unnoticed. That’s not too surprising. Nobody pays attention to the moon any more.
There were a handful more expeditions after the first one, but no colony was ever established. I don’t know exactly how many men (all men, I’m pretty sure of that) have walked on the moon, but it was fewer than 20. In another decade or two, it is very likely that there will be no one left alive who has ever walked on the surface of any rock in space other than the Earth. Unless we get to Mars in that time.
One Giant Leap
Basically, after a few expeditions, the scientific value of going to the moon had reached the point of diminishing returns. It’s a lifeless rock, with no commercial value. The same, unfortunately, holds true for Mars.
Still, I want us to go. I want to see colonies on the red planet, I want to see a space elevator, I want to see hotels at all the LaGrange points, I want mining colonies on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter and Uranus and Neptune. It can be done. It will be done. But it’s going a lot slower than I’d hoped.
There are a couple of areas where we are way ahead of where we were in 1969, and they are major.
In 1969 we had not found any planets orbiting other suns. We figured they were there, most science fiction is based on that premise, but we hadn’t found any. Now, we’ve found several hundred and we are discovering them at assembly line pace.
Space telescopes are getting better, computers are getting way, way better – it’s pretty staggering to realize that Apollo 11 had less computer power than the average mobile phone does today. We are discovering more and more about the nature of the universe.
Robots are getting better, and the ones that are rolling around Mars now are doing a job that no humans could do – at least not for very long.
Also, the price of space exploration has almost come down to the point that some very wealthy individuals can launch independent missions.
When that elevator gets built, get ready for another rapid expansion.
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