" class="img-responsive" height="350" width="700">Perhaps the fabled creature ought to be renamed to “Man on the Moon” instead of “Man in the Moon ( Man in the Moon ) .”
I think your know what I’m referring to: After a 50-year absence from the Earth’s lovely Moon, there is a new attempt by the USA (and other countries), to send a rocket and, a few years later, actually some people to the Moon.
NASA’s new Artemis-1 Moon rocket is certainly impressive but it’s just thought of as a stepping stone to a futuristic landing of astronauts (again) on the Moon and, in the more distant future, on Planet Mars.
What changed in 50 years?
Neither the physical Moon nor the Earth changed perceptively. They still go around their trodden paths.
“Down here,” there may have been some changes, politically, economically, demographically, militarily, etc. Basically, I would summarize them as “normal evolutionary developments.”
The last two+ years were certainly difficult in many ways, the most incisive being the “COVID-Affair,” thought of by many pundits as a “world-altering” catastrophe. However, despite the deaths claimed as a consequence, the entire world population is quite stable and, actually, still increasing at the same rate it has for 70 years .
A few days late
OK, the launch was postponed for a few days due to unstated “engine issues” or so. -- No problem. Any undertaking of that magnitude, cost, and futuristic expectations may have a few hiccups.
But what, really, is now, again, driving the whole idea?
It couldn’t be just bragging rights. After a 50-year hiatus of “planting the flag,” what’s now the driving force behind the new super effort?
The rock samples brought back from the past explorations did not enlarge mankind’s knowledge of mineralogy or geology. These samples have mostly been collecting dust in museums’ drawers.
At least for some of the proponents of all this “space exploration,” it appears to be a new “Gold-Rush” idea. Sort of like the California or Klondike (Canada) finds that drew thousands of folks to search for the motherlode and get lucky and rich. Yes, a few folks did but most did not.
A new “Gold-Rush”
As described in the post on CBC, we get already advice from legal experts as to what’s allowed and what’s not; see: “Humans want to mine the moon. Here's what space law experts say the rules are;” ( https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/moon-mining-outer-space-treaty-1.6568648 )
Gold, and/or other potential ( = hoped for ) mineral resources may indeed exist on the Moon, Mars, various asteroids, and other heavenly bodies. However, they are not just a cross-country trek or Chilkoot Pass climb away, as arduous as they were.
No, that new frontier is different by magnitudes of technology, materials, costs, and human ability to live at extreme climatic and other conditions.
Exploring our planet’s Moon is child’s play, compared to the difficulties to reach and explore just our nearest planetary neighbor.
Climbing the Chilkoot Pass in 1898
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