Sunday, April 17, 2011

Still Thinking About Space.

So.

I'm still thinking about space. Mostly about the Space Race, from 1957- 1972. And about Space Monkeys. And Space Chimps.



And About Cosmonauts.




A lot about Cosmonauts. It seems that, while we downplayed it for years, the Soviets were WAY ahead of us throughout the Space Race.

First Man-made satellite.
First animal in space.
First man in Space.
First Man to orbit the Earth.
First man to orbit the Earth multiple times.
First woman in space.
First terrestrial object to land on the moon.

It's like Apollo 11 was a big flip of the bird to the U.S.S.R. and then we were satisfied that we'd won and we sorta quit.



"F**K You, Ivan!!"

And now, Russia plans to go to the Moon in 2025.

And China plans to go the same year and build a moonbase.



Martin Landau sold separately.

And meanwhile, back in the good ol' U.S. of A., we plan to let Private Industry lead the way into space. And maybe go to an Asteroid in 2025.

NASA Simulation

And maybe try for Mars in the 2030's.

I have to say, I'm not wild about the idea of a moon occupied by China. LBJ would have a conniption.

2 comments:

The7ofSwords said...

I think we, as a nation, just peaked in the 1960s.

With assassinations of presidents and civil rights leaders, Viet Nam and our other international misadventures, then Watergate and a collapsing world economy followed quickly by Reagan and his "government* is the enemy" attitude ... it's a wonder we've lasted as long as we have.

Until we manage to recapture the idea that there really is a common good, and that advancements in science can be used to help everyone, and are, therefore, worth public investment (and not always resulting in private profits), we're doomed to stagnation.

::sigh::

(*i.e. any institution that as at least partly accountable to the general public: democratically-elected leaders, unions, public interest groups, the legal appeals system, etc.)

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