The Moon was shining through high, mottled clouds last night. I tried a few photos with my phone but it doesn't have the lens for for the job.
It still annoys me that there aren't any city lights up there. Let alone a hotel.
Tam and I have been watching For All Mankind, the Apple TV alternate history in which the Soviet Union beat the U. S. to land the first man on the moon, setting Alexi Leonov down between Apollo 10's close-enough-to-touch dress rehearsal (yes, that really happened) and the Apollo 11 landing.
In the series, the USSR space program's Chief Designer Sergei Korolev survived instead of dying during surgery in 1966. Maybe he hadn't been sent to a gulag and worked over in the alternate universe; they haven't said.
The series takes real social issues of the day (it starts in 1969 and by the start of second season, it's up to 1983) and lets them play out against the background of ongoing, competitive Lunar explorations, a working Skylab supported by Space Shuttles as originally planned, and a Cold War that may be teetering closer to the brink than the real one ever came. If you get all hot under the collar about DEI, it may not be your cup of tea; if you didn't live through those years or study recent history, you may have a little trouble keeping up. But the series, so far, is a great example of how to tell a thrilling hard-SF story, character-driven and full of moments that carry what the late Sir Terry Pratchett called "narrative inevitability." There's a lot of promise and a lot of payoff.
It brings back the excitement I remember from the Apollo years. We were landing on the Moon! Giant rockets were thundering into the sky! I still remember the family vacation when were traveling up an interstate nearly on the other side of Florida during an Apollo launch. Cars began pulling over and stopping, and so did we, to watch the huge rocket making its way, a pillar of flame climbing heavenward.
Highly recommended, especially if you enjoy a good story. Alas, in the end, it is only a story. The Russians never got there. We didn't stay on the Moon. There's no hotel. Yet.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
2 comments:
"It brings back the excitement I remember from the Apollo years. We were landing on the Moon! Giant rockets were thundering into the sky! I still remember the family vacation when were traveling up an interstate nearly on the other side of Florida during an Apollo launch. Cars began pulling over and stopping, and so did we, to watch the huge rocket making its way, a pillar of flame climbing heavenward."
It seemed then that we, or at least the United States, could do anything. Then, having reached the moon it was like we lost interest, focus, drive, I'm not sure what. But, thanks to Elon Musk, we seem to have recaptured some of that Can Do spirit. Maybe the future isn't so gloomy after all.
Sadly, Musk gets worse the closer one looks, a deeply flawed guy. (Not at all atypical of successful space program heads.) But SpaceX is doing okay, with a lot of very talented engineers and a good manager running it. If they can get Starship working, that'll be a very big deal. If not...? There's a B team or two, between Blue Origin, ULA and others, and a few more readying up.
We can *still* do anything along those lines -- if Congress will spend the money, and not use it to curry favors across the country. Using NASA as a pork barrel screwed up the Shuttle and undermined their credibility. At least farming the whole job out to a single contractor keeps that from happening. And as the cost per pound to orbit drops, private companies will play an increasingly large part in space exploration and use, as more than government contractors or stunts. Once you're in orbit, you're halfway to anywhere in the Solar System.
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