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Lileks on Apollo: "...each planet would feel like a blank page in a passport..."
As Ive said before, nothing sums up the seventies, and the awful guttering of the national spirit, than a pop song about Skylab falling on peoples heads. Skylabs Falling, a novelty hit in the summer of 79. It tumbled down thirty years ago this month, and didnt get much press, possibly because of the odd muted humiliation over the event. But it wasnt end of Skylab that gave people a strange shameful dismay. It was the idea that we were done up there, and the only thing wed done since the Moon trips did an ignominious Icarus instead of staying up for decades. So this wasnt the first step toward the inevitable double-wheel with a Strauss waltz soundtrack, or something more prosaic. Wasnt that the way it was supposed to work? Moon first, then space station, then moon colonization, then Mars. If a kid could see that, why couldnt they? What was stopping them? Money, of course; a reason to do it; sufficient know-how. A proper adversary competing in the same arena. (The Reds werent heading for Mars, although that would have been an exceptional piece of propaganda. Not too many political systems have planets that match their ideological hue.) Institutional bloat. Cultural anomie. By the time we got our national mojo back in the 80s the culture had shifted, and the overculture was full of people whose hackles bristled when people started talking about national greatness, national destiny, as these were just code-words for whatever sort of warmongering madness that actor in the White House wished to bring down on our heads. But that was just part of it: mostly, I blame good special effects. Once we could experience space, and alternate near-futures in which we could see the great beyond in realistic ships piloted by Bruce Willis, the appetite for the real thing slaked off. Robot exploration is very cool; Id like more. As someone noted elsewhere, we should have those rovers crawling all over the Moon, at the very least. Its just down the street. But think how much grander we would feel if we knew that our first mission to Jupiter was coming back next month. (Without the giant space-fetus.) How we would imagine our solar system, how each planet would feel like a blank page in a passport waiting for a stamp. Perhaps thats what annoys some: the aggrandizement that would come from great exploits. Human pride in something that isnt specifically related to fixing the Great Problems we face now, or apologizing for the Bad Things we did before. Spending money to go to Mars before weve stopped climate turbulence would be like taking a trip to Europe while the house is on fire. Posted by: Mike 2009-07-21 |
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