Nasa is off to the moon again, having given its efforts to reach new frontiers a 50-year break. But before you get too excited, keep in mind recent fanfare was around the crew being named only, presumably, to sort out among themselves who will ride shotgun. As befitting a long-haul flight, there's a delay of several months between announcement and commencement, with the actual take-off only taking place in November. It’s clearly not a space race this time.
But wait, there’s more. The crew — thankfully with a man named Wiseman among them — will not set foot on the moon. No, instead of a landing, it’s a fly-by, with the astronauts embarking on a mission to and from Earth’s closest celestial body only, and they should be back in time to celebrate Christmas with the rest of us. The reason for what's essentially a sightseeing trip is quite astonishing. According to the free world’s only well-funded space agency, the equipment to land on the moon is not ready to be deployed. “Nasa doesn't yet have a system capable of taking astronauts down to the lunar surface,” is the official statement.
Apart from the fact that a person of colour and a woman will ascend to the heavens for the first time (for some reason the ill-fated teacher of the 1980s is never mentioned), this is not new
What, you have to ask yourself, happened to the equipment Neil Armstrong used to get to and waltz among the craters? Didn’t they play golf up there? (Apparently the new capsules and buggies are being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which would explain this further delay.) The whole thing does create the impression that, as far as finding intelligent life elsewhere is concerned, humanity, over the past 50 years, has taken one small step forward and two giant leaps back. We’re all intelligent to some degree, so why is it that the world’s smartest people — in 2023, which is years beyond 2000 — still can’t take living, breathing humans past the moon?
Well, life happens, I guess. The pandemic put the brakes on humans exploring anything other than their front lawns and, before that, the Cold War required everything shaped like a rocket to point eastward to Russia. So there are legitimate large-scale reasons for the hold-up. On a more personal level, you could say gallivanting in deep space isn’t as high on the priority list for most humans as, say, renewing a driver’s licence. Daily life is a hands-on business. Plus, we’re in the Easter holidays. For most, the focus now is to seek out family members, preferably ones living at the coast. It’s our first contact after Christmas, where anything a meeting with extraterrestrials can offer regarding fostering a feeling of togetherness, while creating a situation teetering on the very edge of mutual destruction, can be had right here on home soil. Elsewhere, for a rare, once-in-a-lifetime event, look no further than CNN and the Trump Show now filming on location in a courtroom. We’re too busy for space. The tax year is starting (or is it ending?) and before long the Rugby World Cup kicks off. I’m surprised Nasa could find people with time to jet off to the moon.
The announcement of Nasa’s latest crew to the moon was a non-event. Yes, they made a video of the astronauts walking in slow motion to their 21st-century spacecraft, suited up to the teeth. And yes, the soundtrack to the team going slowly where only a few had gone before befits a Hollywood blockbuster. But apart from the fact that a person of colour and a woman will ascend to the heavens for the first time (for some reason the ill-fated teacher of the 1980s is never mentioned), this is not new.
Look, alert us when Matt Damon arrives on Mars without the help of CGI. Notify us when sightings on planets are of something other than water. We have water right here, Nasa. We have it in spring, sparkling, mineral and tap. We have space rocks called meteors and we have vacuums called Hoovers. We can see the stars. Let us know when you’ve reached them. Until then, keep your team news in your internal Nasa team newsletter. We don’t have time for non-news. We’re eating hot cross buns and enjoying the hols.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.