A New Dawn for Humanity (random thoughts on Artemis 2 launch)

 

When I was a kid, I stayed glued to the tv screen as long as possible before having to leave for school. I didn't ever want to miss a launch. If NASA had to delay, and I had to leave, I took my transistor radio and listened on the way. Sometimes I surreptitiously listened with a small wired earbud while Sister Mary Delores droned on about whatever lesson I wasn't at all interested in.

I was, I suppose, like almost every American kid. I was proud. I thought of being an astronaut. 

I don’t think I had the scientific aptitude that it would have taken, but somewhere in my elementary school age mind, I knew it was important. 

I watched all of those early NASA missions. Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. Whether they wanted to be or not, those first astronauts were heroes, made that way by the American press and ticker tape parades. 

We got to the Moon. Walked on it. And then stopped. Haven’t been back there since 1972.


Since then, Earth’s scientists have built a space station and flew several missions with a shuttle which was basically a flying semi. Two of those shuttles exploded killing all on board. 

Since those last steps on the Moon, we humans have more than doubled our population. The world is warmer and the only thing that might save our species is either leaving the earth or just wait until Artificial Intelligence wipes us out. 

It always pissed me off that we stopped going, stopped exploring, stopped the promise of Star Trek and Twilight Zone. Even though I was no scientist, I applied for the ill fated Teacher in Space program. 

So today, when I watched Artemis 2 successfully launch, I was glad and hopeful. 

 

 Some people will decry the expense of these and other such advances into space. They will, rightfully, point out the income inequality in the world, the housing problems, the hunger in many countries. 

Many of these same people continue to ignore that humanity has fucked itself into too many people, too many mouths to feed. Many of these same people live in houses with far more rooms than needed, with a house for their cars and a vacation home in the country. 

I suspect that many of them have said during the pandemic that we should be paying attention to the experts and trust the science behind vaccines. I say trust the science that will take humanity to the stars. 


I may never be that astronaut, but I hope we humans will survive to have many of them.