Whither the Moon?

Why don’t we have a functioning populated Moon base by now? We’ve had over thirty years to get it set up and going. So what happened?

Just what was more important that we had to spend our time and money on? Welfare? Farms subsidies? Bridges to nowhere in Alaska? A billion here or there spent to do something in some backward country that the rulers appropriate for their personal use? How many billions upon billions have we simply wasted that we could have used to move into space in a big way?

Don’t we get it? We’re like all the eggs in one basket here. One little slip and splat, we all die and the species goes down with us. The only way we are going to help ensure our species survival is to do what good insurance companies do: spread the risk. That means getting ourselves living on other planets going around other stars. This Earth Mother Gaia is all very nice, but maybe she has some relatives we could go live with? At least send the kids to live with?

Heck, we don’t even need planets. Hollow out a few large sized asteroids, grab a comet or two for water and gases, and make a nice little cave away from home.

The point is, eventually, something bad is going to happen. A big ass asteroid is going to go plop. Some idiot Muslim fanatic is going to get the bomb and it’ll be “Oh Boy, don’t you just love to hear things go bang!” And bang, bang, bang!

We wasted thirty years of getting off this rock. With a viable moon base operational in even the last 15 years, we would have learned better how to live, work, and play in space and all those nasty conditions that go with it. We would have gotten better, faster, cheaper at this space travel thing. Our technology focus would be outward, instead of like today when we seem to be more fascinated with our individual comforts such as the latest tweeting cell phone.

Our plan should have been and should still be first to get the moon base going. Then we move on to Mars. Then, maybe one of the moons of Jupiter. From there, it is manifest galactic destiny baby! It is not a sci-fi nut’s dream. It is a survival imperative.

There are millions of European and North American people who think that we, mankind, are a plague on this earth. They act and talk as though they see us, the whole species, as some sort of evil, a cancer killing Earth Mom. You begin to wonder if they don’t secretly hope we all die, and leave the planet to be inhabited only by those lovable critters like the spotted owl and snail darter. How soon before they actively begin to plot for that outcome? It is getting that goofy around here that I can’t help but think it’s getting way past time to leave the neighborhood, because I don’t much care for the crazies that are moving in next door.

Where did we lose the adventurous have to look at the next valley, move to a new land, make a new life part of our human spirit? Those folks who jumped on a leaky Mayflower and sailed off into the unknown or who hiked for four months across the great plains and Rocky Mountains for some greener Oregon grass would think we are a bunch of spoiled, soft, sissies. We are, not only in body but also in will and determination.

It’s a disgrace.

And where the hell is my flying car?!