Dixon Carter Lee
Headliner
- Joined
- Nov 22, 1999
- Posts
- 48,682
I just read an intersting article on a movement to claim all the crap the astronauts left on the moon as U.S. Historic Sites, if not actually U.S. Property, which is illegal under an international agreement set up in 1967. (Actually, the agreement says that countries can't own property, not individuals, which is why some looney in America has claimed the moon and has been selling plots of land for years. A brilliant idea, actually, as novelty ideas go.)
I don't know what I think about all that. Maybe Neil Armstong's footprint. That we could keep. Put up a gift shop. But should we really put ropes around Alan Shephard's golf ball? What if the Russians find frozen ice under an old moon buggy? Does that mean they won't be allowed to move it two feet to the left? Seems silly to make all the garbage "historic" (especially since NASA retains the right to retrieve any and all of it whenever they like).
Then it got me thinking about how long it's been since we've been to the moon. I talk to kids today that don't even know we went more than once. Teenagers don't seem to know the difference between the "galaxy" and the "solar system".
And it's not just kids. I was talking to a man the other day, almost fifty years old, who was damn surprised to learn that the stars we were looking at might not really be there given the time it takes light to travel. I tried to explain what a light year was, and that looking into space is like looking back in time, and he just couldn't believe it. He had a hard time "getting" something I thought was common knowledge. (Of course, this is a man who grew up not only watching television, but writing, producing and directing sit-coms for the last thirty years, so maybe that has something to do with it.)
I've talked before about that Jay Leno bit where he asked people questions like "Which is bigger, the sun or the moon?", and got blank stares.
And I'm still amazed that the computer I'm typing on is about a billion times more powerful than anything they had on Apollo 11.
As far as the moon goes, I suppose that by Pete Conrad it became commonplace. In the early 1970s it just felt like there would always be astronauts on the moon, and we tooki t for granted. Now, almost thirty years later, people are starting to ask "what happened?"
I think we should go back to the moon. Not just for the adventure, and not just because there just might be frozen water there, which can be used to make rocket fuel, thereby making the moon a great starting point for exploring the rest of the solar system, but because I think we've become "earthbound" again. Remember last year when NASA bounced a rover onto Mars, how excited we all got?
And I think when we go we should go as an international group, and forget about all this historic site shit, othewise every grain of sand on the Moon will end up revered like the Holy Fucking Grail.
[Edited by Dixon Carter Lee on 09-28-2000 at 11:22 AM]
I don't know what I think about all that. Maybe Neil Armstong's footprint. That we could keep. Put up a gift shop. But should we really put ropes around Alan Shephard's golf ball? What if the Russians find frozen ice under an old moon buggy? Does that mean they won't be allowed to move it two feet to the left? Seems silly to make all the garbage "historic" (especially since NASA retains the right to retrieve any and all of it whenever they like).
Then it got me thinking about how long it's been since we've been to the moon. I talk to kids today that don't even know we went more than once. Teenagers don't seem to know the difference between the "galaxy" and the "solar system".
And it's not just kids. I was talking to a man the other day, almost fifty years old, who was damn surprised to learn that the stars we were looking at might not really be there given the time it takes light to travel. I tried to explain what a light year was, and that looking into space is like looking back in time, and he just couldn't believe it. He had a hard time "getting" something I thought was common knowledge. (Of course, this is a man who grew up not only watching television, but writing, producing and directing sit-coms for the last thirty years, so maybe that has something to do with it.)
I've talked before about that Jay Leno bit where he asked people questions like "Which is bigger, the sun or the moon?", and got blank stares.
And I'm still amazed that the computer I'm typing on is about a billion times more powerful than anything they had on Apollo 11.
As far as the moon goes, I suppose that by Pete Conrad it became commonplace. In the early 1970s it just felt like there would always be astronauts on the moon, and we tooki t for granted. Now, almost thirty years later, people are starting to ask "what happened?"
I think we should go back to the moon. Not just for the adventure, and not just because there just might be frozen water there, which can be used to make rocket fuel, thereby making the moon a great starting point for exploring the rest of the solar system, but because I think we've become "earthbound" again. Remember last year when NASA bounced a rover onto Mars, how excited we all got?
And I think when we go we should go as an international group, and forget about all this historic site shit, othewise every grain of sand on the Moon will end up revered like the Holy Fucking Grail.
[Edited by Dixon Carter Lee on 09-28-2000 at 11:22 AM]
