Americans are more united in their support of moon exploration than they are many other topics.
Which is to say, they are united by their lack of support.
Only 23 percent of Americans believe that returning astronauts to the moon is “very/extremely important,” according to a recent survey conducted by The Associated Press and the non-partisan and objective research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.
That’s depressingly similar to a survey from 1964. Then, only 26 percent of Americans said that the U.S. should try to beat Russia to the moon with a manned mission.
One myth about Apollo 11 noted in “One Giant Leap,” a new book by Charles Fishman excerpted in June’s Smithsonian magazine, is that the public widely and enthusiastically supported NASA in the years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their historic lunar visit. But that appears to be revisionist history. One is tempted to call it “fake” history.
Some of the same concerns heard today were used 50-plus years ago. We have enough problems without adding the moon to the list. Let’s solve poverty first. And hunger. And war.
I overheard a group of students kvetching about this topic recently. One said that the U.S. should be more focused on fixing the environment than going to the moon. Another said there were still plenty of unexplored regions on Earth, especially in our oceans.
Besides, what did going to the moon ever get us anyway?
Fishman has answers for that. He argues that Apollo’s legacy rests on more than just national pride in beating the Russians to the punch. According to him, the race to the moon ushered in the digital age, popularizing and standardizing integrated circuits. It also whetted our collective appetites for technology, including real-time computing that most of us take for granted today.
That means that we can, in part, thank NASA and Apollo for computers that crunch our income taxes and monitor our heartbeats — and for smartphones that allow us to tweet our breakfast photos to the world.
Fishman doesn’t mention it, but Apollo also popularized Tang, that great-tasting staple of baby-boomers’ diets.
And, despite the dismal lack of support for future moon landings, the American public does recognize the importance of space exploration in general. The AP-NORC poll indicates 42 percent of Americans support continued funding of the International Space Station, 47 percent want to continue to send robotic probes without human passengers into space, and a whopping 68 percent want the U.S. space program to “monitor objects including asteroids, comets, and other objects that could impact the Earth.”
The only two ideas in the survey that rank lower among Americans than returning to the moon are establishing a U.S. military presence in space and establishing a permanent human presence on other planets.
Readers often accuse me of having nothing nice to say about Donald Trump (and those readers are correct — I usually don’t), but let me go on record as saying I support his administration’s desire to send America back to the moon and into outer space faster than the current NASA timetable.
If the possible technological advances stemming from a new space race aren’t enough, consider this: At the rate we are destroying our planet and rolling back environmental regulations, we have every incentive needed to reach beyond the boundaries of our own world and at least lay the groundwork for expansion, even if it that concept is centuries away from being a reality.
In the musical “Hamilton,” legacy is described as “planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” Space is our legacy. The moon, first visited by man 50 years ago, was our first step toward fulfilling it.
Going back should be our next step.
Originally published on June 27, 2019, in The Alliance Review.
Which is to say, they are united by their lack of support.
Only 23 percent of Americans believe that returning astronauts to the moon is “very/extremely important,” according to a recent survey conducted by The Associated Press and the non-partisan and objective research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.
That’s depressingly similar to a survey from 1964. Then, only 26 percent of Americans said that the U.S. should try to beat Russia to the moon with a manned mission.
One myth about Apollo 11 noted in “One Giant Leap,” a new book by Charles Fishman excerpted in June’s Smithsonian magazine, is that the public widely and enthusiastically supported NASA in the years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their historic lunar visit. But that appears to be revisionist history. One is tempted to call it “fake” history.
Some of the same concerns heard today were used 50-plus years ago. We have enough problems without adding the moon to the list. Let’s solve poverty first. And hunger. And war.
I overheard a group of students kvetching about this topic recently. One said that the U.S. should be more focused on fixing the environment than going to the moon. Another said there were still plenty of unexplored regions on Earth, especially in our oceans.
Besides, what did going to the moon ever get us anyway?
Fishman has answers for that. He argues that Apollo’s legacy rests on more than just national pride in beating the Russians to the punch. According to him, the race to the moon ushered in the digital age, popularizing and standardizing integrated circuits. It also whetted our collective appetites for technology, including real-time computing that most of us take for granted today.
That means that we can, in part, thank NASA and Apollo for computers that crunch our income taxes and monitor our heartbeats — and for smartphones that allow us to tweet our breakfast photos to the world.
Fishman doesn’t mention it, but Apollo also popularized Tang, that great-tasting staple of baby-boomers’ diets.
And, despite the dismal lack of support for future moon landings, the American public does recognize the importance of space exploration in general. The AP-NORC poll indicates 42 percent of Americans support continued funding of the International Space Station, 47 percent want to continue to send robotic probes without human passengers into space, and a whopping 68 percent want the U.S. space program to “monitor objects including asteroids, comets, and other objects that could impact the Earth.”
The only two ideas in the survey that rank lower among Americans than returning to the moon are establishing a U.S. military presence in space and establishing a permanent human presence on other planets.
Readers often accuse me of having nothing nice to say about Donald Trump (and those readers are correct — I usually don’t), but let me go on record as saying I support his administration’s desire to send America back to the moon and into outer space faster than the current NASA timetable.
If the possible technological advances stemming from a new space race aren’t enough, consider this: At the rate we are destroying our planet and rolling back environmental regulations, we have every incentive needed to reach beyond the boundaries of our own world and at least lay the groundwork for expansion, even if it that concept is centuries away from being a reality.
In the musical “Hamilton,” legacy is described as “planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” Space is our legacy. The moon, first visited by man 50 years ago, was our first step toward fulfilling it.
Going back should be our next step.
Originally published on June 27, 2019, in The Alliance Review.
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