I found it ironic last week when, in the nick of time, I remembered a historic space launch was about to happen.
The Artemis II rocket, which has been plagued with issues for quite some time, was poised to launch on a historic mission to circle the Moon and come back to Earth.
As I looked at the clock, I scrambled and quickly opened the CSPAN link on my computer.
“10-9-8 …” was the commentary.
I had made it by 10 seconds.
The engines were already firing and right at zero, the rocket roared to life over the Atlantic Ocean from the Florida coast and humans were once again headed to the Moon. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be landing on the Moon, but they were going on a quite the journey.
As I watched the launch, I could not help but think of my dear friend Michelle Evans. Michelle is the biggest space enthusiast I know on Earth. In fact, I met Michelle through the Orange County Space Society nearly 30 years ago.
We exchanged emails about the launch, and as I had figured, Michelle, like me, had mixed feelings.
It was great to see a rocket ship once again heading to the Moon. On the other hand, some of those behind this launch may have questionable motives. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, to be specific.
Back in the day, NASA was a pure government agency but now, private space ventures are involved. I don’t think that is a bad thing, mainly because there certainly is waste in any government and the private sector focuses on efficiency.
But as Michelle pointed out, the unmanned test flight of Artemis had issues with the heat shield. For those who don’t know, it could be the most important piece of equipment on the space capsule.
That shield protects the astronauts from the ravages of the atmosphere when it reenters, where the heat builds up to nearly equal to that of the sun. Michelle pointed out the companies didn’t really do much after they learned of the uneven wear from the test flight.
Instead, they are changing the angle of entry and doing other things which they say should make it safe.
Let’s hope so.
I also had some mixed feelings about this trip to the Moon and the planned future trips to build a permanent station on the loyal orb that keeps us all alive.
On the one hand, there is the fact that robotic ships could probably do this for a fraction of the cost. We have proven that over and over again by putting robots on Mars. Heck, we still have the Voyager probes traveling in deep space — and still working.
But on the other hand, there is something magical about humans being involved in exploring space. A human can do things and feel things that a robot just can’t and never will be able to do.
I became interested in space when America first traveled to the Moon. That was nearly 56 years ago, July 20, 1969, when the astronauts stepped onto another world for the first time. As a youngster, I was fascinated and began studying more and more about space and everything associated with the universe.
In fact, I nearly decided to go into astronomy, but journalism has a larger gravitational pull.
It did, however, inspire me to continue to learn more and more and eventually led me to meet Michelle and write a column for the Orange County Space Society’s monthly newsletter. (In another column, I will explain the extraordinary connection Michelle has to Mariposa and the incredible circumstances that led me to find that out.)
Space has played a major role in my life.
As I write this, it is the hope those four astronauts are headed back toward the Earth, having successfully circled the Moon and began what is the inevitable race to put humans back on the orb.
And hopefully, the heat shield will hold when it reenters the atmosphere.
But the questions still remain about the future of spaceflight and how we humans are going to move forward.
As with most things, politics plays a role in the future. China is now the biggest other player in the space race and we all know how many people feel about China.
It is akin to back in the day when we were battling the Russians to reach the Moon. Obviously, we won and Russia has never been the same.
But China is a different animal. Sure, most of us despise Communism and rightfully so. But we cannot deny there are a lot of smart people in China and their technology has advance with leaps and bounds.
So the question becomes how important is it for actual humans to continue to fly into space?
For what it’s worth, I think it is the key to the eventual success of exploring space. There is just something about that human feel and experience that has to be present.
My biggest frustration has been America’s lack of effort to continue our space exploration.
When those men landed on the Moon so many years ago, I thought that was the start of a trip to Mars and then beyond in the near future.
I was completely wrong and, instead, we decided to keep people in low earth orbit. The space shuttle program was good, but we also lost two vehicles and 14 astronauts in the program.
Instead of taking advantage of the momentum we had when we were the first to land on the Moon, we took a giant leap backwards and still haven’t recovered.
Space is the key to our future whether we like it or not. At some point, millions of years from now, our Sun is going to come to the end of its life. We will have to be out of here by then.
There is the argument the human race will likely not survive that long anyway, so what’s the point? That is certainly a valid point as our path as a human race becomes more unstable.
However, I still think we can somehow overcome this crazy time we are currently in and come together as an entire planet in order to figure out what that future millions of years from now might be like.
How else can we approach it?
I have always considered myself an optimist and I think, in the long run, the Artemis mission is a positive in spite of the questionable motivations and people behind it happening. Humankind can overcome almost anything, including billionaires, though that has been called into questions as of late.
“To the Stars” was the title of my space column and that remains how I feel to this day.
“10-9-8 …”
Greg Little is editor of the Mariposa Gazette and can be reached at greg@mariposagazette.com
Responses (0)