Fly me to the moon and let me stay among the stars

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 05 December 2006 05:33

Opinion and Analysis

A permanent moon base is once again on the drawing boards of NASA after what to many has been a bitterly disappointing 34 year hiatus from manned space exploration.

Back in 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot on the moon, and during subsequent visits over the next three years, there was talk about taking the next step and planning a mission to Mars by 1986. Then for some inexplicable reason, it all came to a halt.

What we have got in the past 34 years is relatively miniscule progress compared to the giant strides made in the 13 years between 1956, when Russia launched Sputnik, and 1969 when Apollo 11 touched down. In fact so unimpressive have the achievements been on the manned space travel side of astronautics, that wild conspiracy theories have surfaced postulating that the original lunar landings that we all watched live on TV were actually staged hoaxes.

In 1968, the Stanley Kubrik - Arthur C Clarke vision of space travel presented in 2001: A space Odyssey seemed plausible. Now the movie seems like it should have been set in the year 2101.

Thus, it is gratifying to see that once again travel to the moon is on the agenda and that a permanent lunar base is planned. However, the lunar landings are not scheduled to begin until 2020. If the US was able to get to the moon and back safely in 1969, why has the next scheduled series of trips taken 51 years?

More importantly, why will it take another 14 years to get a manned multinational landing mission in place when the original mission was accomplished by the US alone from the first successful rocket launch to the landing and return with far inferior technology in just 13 years?