18 ASTRONOMY • MAY 2020FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
It is hard to say whether I
truly remember Mercury
astronauts being bolted
into tiny capsules and blasted into
space, or whether I only remember
remembering. Regardless, those
images are there in my mind. That is
where my lifelong love affair with
science, engineering, and explora-
tion took root.
Even as a young kid, I understood
that spacef light was about pushing
the limits of human experience.
Maybe I became aware of the danger
when Gemini VIII tumbled out of
control after the first-ever docking
of two spacecraft in orbit. A quick-thinking Neil
Armstrong and David Scott narrowly averted tragedy
by using the reentry system to wrestle the capsule back
under control.
Or maybe it all became real with the Apollo 1 fire.
Along with much of the world, I was
glued to the TV waiting for Apollo 8 to
emerge from behind the Moon on
Christmas Eve 1968. As a 10-year-old, I
listened when Armstrong again demon-
strated his skill as a seat-of-the-pants pilot,
landing on the Moon with only 15 seconds
of fuel to spare.
By all accounts, Apollo 13 should have
ended in tragedy. I recall shocked amaze-
ment when I first saw a picture of the hole
blasted in the side of the Service Module
when an oxygen tank exploded. Twenty-five
years later, I was visiting Fermilab when a
freshly minted particle physics graduate student scoffed
at the “preposterous” plot of the newly released Tom
Hanks movie. I’m not sure that he believed me when I
told him it was a true story.
I cried when I watched Apollo 17 lift off from the
Moon, knowing that the last three planned missions
had been canceled. I now understand why that decision
was inevitable. To the people calling the shots, Apollo
was never really about exploration. We went to the
Moon to one-up the Soviets in the eyes of the world.
Having accomplished that end, each additional flight
put that political victory at risk with little perceived
gain in status.
But for a generation of young people who watched
that drama and went on to become scientists andengineers, Apollo didn’t go to the Moon to beat the
Soviets. Apollo went to the Moon for us.
I was saddened by the disaster of space shuttle
Columbia. I was livid when it became clear that space
shuttle Challenger exploded because someone thought
political expediency was more important than physical
reality.
I never saw eye to eye with colleagues who bemoaned
dollars spent on human spacef light. While robotic explo-
r at ion of space is one of hu ma n it y ’s g r a nde st accompl ish-
ments, for many, including myself, robots aren’t enough.
It matters that humans see, feel, experience, and push
limits. It always has, and it always will. Had you told me
at 12 years old that half a century would pass without a
return to the Moon, much less a trip to Mars, I probably
would have spit in your face. But here we are.
Personally, I can’t really complain. As a kid (and, to be
honest, as an adult, too) I devoured books by the likes of
Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke.
Experiences like working in the Mission Operations
Center as STS-61 astronauts installed WFPC2, the
camera that saved Hubble, offered small tastes of what
that future might have been like.
But do dreams from childhood ever really die? Call
me a romantic, but apparently the answer is no.
When two reusable SpaceX Falcon Heavy boosters
landed side by side, I felt hope and longing as
much as I did excitement. And, face it: It takes
a certain je ne sai s quoi to launch your cherry-
red electric sports car into Mars-crossing
solar orbit with a spacesuit-clad mannequin
named Starman in the driver’s seat.
Those were teases; September’s rollout of
the shining, bullet-shaped Starship proto-
type took my breath away. How could the
cover artists for all of those 1940s and ’50s
science fiction magazines have known?
Robert Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the
Moon was pure fiction, but could Elon Musk
become The Man Who Sold Mars? While
SpaceX is careful not to say too much about schedules
publicly, there is talk on the street of the possibility of a
Mars landing within the next five years or so. One even
hears that a base could be up and running within the
decade. If and when that happens, it seems clear that
Musk has no intention of walking away.
This is a struggle. Is all of the recent talk about send-
ing humans to the Moon and Mars a pipe dream? Can
Musk — or, for that matter, NASA or Blue Origin —
make it so? After a lifetime of resignation, should I again
let myself dream of seeing humans on another world?
Could I stop myself if I tried?When will humankind leave the cradle?
Rekindling dreams
When Gene Cernan
snapped this photo of
Jack Schmitt on the
lunar surface, along
with the Apollo 17
rover, no one yet
appreciated how long
it would be until
humans returned
to the Moon. NASA/JSCIs all of the
recent talk
about
sending
humans to
the Moon and
Mars a pipe
dream?BY JEFF HESTER
Jeff is a keynote
speaker, coach,
and astrophysicist.
Follow his thoughts
at jeff-hester.comBROWSE THE “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION”
ARCHIVE AT http://www.Astronomy.com/Hester