Forty Years

Yesterday was something of a milestone annivarsary and I felt it was important to comment on how we the world has completely and totally dropped the ball. So forty years ago Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins launched into space on Apollo 11 on its historic mission to the Moon. What was to be our first step in to the large solar system, turned out to also be one of our last.

So we spent millions of dollars on getting a man in to orbit, and millions more on getting him to the moon and back. Now we continue to spend billions of dollars on spaceflight that has turned in to a glorified Delivery / Repair van that is the shuttle. Nothing against the brave men and women who travel and work out of the shuttle but lets face we are no where near where we should be.

This day should have been celebrated by colonists on the Moon. Maybe with the dedication of a new pressure dome on the moon, or the first permenant settlement on Mars. There is no way we should have allowed our governments to linger so close to the planet. Imagine a world where the toxic chemicals we produce on a regular basis could be dumped into orbit where it wouldn't do the damage it does to the planet. Also think about all of the differnt inovations that would have come up along the way as we worked to develop the technology to make it to Mars or to live on the moon full time.

As things stand at this point we've made it to the moon, but in the end it wasn't anything more then a multi-million dollar publicity stunt. Sorry Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins but efforts made as much difference to the world as Mikey who would eat anything. It is a sad statement, but a fairly true on I think.