Today is the 40th anniversary of moon landing. July 20 1969 astronauts from Apollo 11 set foot on the moon surface. “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” is the famous quote from Neil Armstrong. Unfortunately, mankind still haven’t able to made the second leap. After the Apollo mission is canceled in 1972, man has never return to the rock flowing in the night sky. Compare to the Apollo mission, the space shuttle and international space station barely touch the other side of the atmosphere of the Earth.
When I was small, I always fantasy by space adventure, dreaming one day I could travel to space like the astronauts. I thought within my life span, I can witness space tourist for average people and maybe even a resort hotels on the moon. Somehow mankind seems lost their interest on space. Space exploration becomes boring academic and scientific exercise. I am probably the last the generation that grew up with space aspiration. Nowadays, youngster instead of looking up the sky, they look downward back to Earth. They concern more about environment problems than further expanding the horizon of mankind. When green is trendy, man are doomed to bounded by the gravitational pull, forever wasting our attention on mundane issues. When space becomes cool again, only then man can unleash our imagination and evolve beyond the current level.
but what can they do now? going to mars probably takes too long and there’s a good chance that the first people to reach mars may not be able to come back. and another moon mission where the astronaut plays golf and drives around in dune buggies wouldn’t do the trick either. i guess they need a sexier mission, like building a space station on the moon or a space station that looks and feels like a 5 star hotel or something like that…….
NASA needs a new engine. Conventional chemical rocket is too slow for mars. What they really need is a leap in lifting technology.
Thanks !!! Interesting blog article. I wrote one in response.
Here is the address of the blog article:
http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2009/07/from-out-of-africa-to-first-man-on-mars.html
Enjoy 🙂
Haricot