Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“ The difference is, technology is catching up to us now so we can focus on truly sending manned missions to Mars. I’m confident it can happen in my lifetime.” ~ Leland Melvin
Photo: iStockphoto.com/shulz
and the experts were talking matter-of-fact about Mars being the natural extension of walking on the moon. Since we didn’t have devices and couldn’t go online to look at footage, we had to imagine it, envision it. So my generation was a generation of dreamers. “The difference is, technology is catching up to us now so we can focus on truly sending manned missions to Mars. I’m confident it can happen in my lifetime.” Added Apollo 8 flight engineer Poppy Northcutt, the first woman to work in Mission Control during lunar missions, “If I were a young boy or girl today, I’d be as happy as the Baby Boomer kids were in the ‘60s – but kids today have more opportunity to fly later, or work in the space program. I’m really impressed with how robotics and technology are things they already understand.”
The buzz builds every day. For starters, this 50th anniversary year has been far more than a nostalgic tribute to a specific date in time, though that will come July 20. Now, we’re awash with anticipation about a habitable, sustainable workstation growing on the lunar South Pole next decade, including NASA’s goal of sending a manned crew by 2024. One can hear those test-pilot, Right Stuff oldtimer moonwalkers sighing and saying, “Finally.” Here is what Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin, a passionate Mars mission enthusiast throughout, said to this writer in 1993, for One Giant Leap for Mankind, NASA’s 25th anniversary commemorative salute: “I think we’ll go to the poles of the moon first (before Mars). It gives you access to the far side, access to the potential shaded areas and access to some continuous sunlit regions for energy generation.
Then we will probably visit the asteroids with robots, to explore the commercial recovery of asteroid material. Then as we’re converting some of this lunar knowledge to the expedition of Mars, I think we’ll have private citizens visiting space.” Look at Aldrin’s quarter-century-old remarks against a few recent developments: • Three entrepreneurial titans have entered the commercial space ring big-time. Elon Musk’s Space X has sent dozens of satellites into orbit, including a nest of 60 internet satellites. Along with Virgin Galactic (Richard Branson) and Blue Origin ( Jeff Bezos), the trio will be among those leading the way in commercial spaceflights for private citizens, while Blue Origin is also squarely focused on the South Pole of the Moon. SUMMER 2019 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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