Lunar exploration a noble goal
Usually the presentation of a new class of NASA astronauts is a low-key affair. However, earlier this month, the Class of 2017 — seven men and five women of diverse backgrounds and ethnic origins — was graced with the presence of Vice President Mike Pence as they were presented to the world. Pence praised the newly selected astronauts with becoming eloquence. Indeed, all of them have already accomplished a great deal in the commercial sector, in academia and in the military. They might accomplish greater things still.
But what those things might be has yet to be determined. Officially, NASA is still embarked on the Journey to Mars. But the first footsteps on the Red Planet are scheduled to occur when many of the new class of astronauts are likely to be retired, 20 years from now. Surely the United States can make better use of the talents of these fine people than, at best, sending them to circle the Earth endlessly, doing good science, no doubt, but nothing that inspires awe.
The moon is closer, both in time and in space, for people to return to and to continue the task of exploration well begun by the men of Apollo but interrupted by decades of indifference and ennui. If the world is serious about deep space exploration, it should make the commitment to send the best who have been born here to revisit that world three days away, to open the scientific, political and commercial opportunities it offers.
The 21st century, as Glenn Reynolds, the law professor and purveyor of Instapundit is given to say, is not what we were promised. Between the endless war on terror, political acrimony and mendacity, and increasing cultural strife, the current century has been bloody awful. Maybe it is time to redeem that 21st century and make it what it was meant to be, the time human beings finally break free of the confines of one planet and its vicinity and start spreading outward.
Speaking of redemption, most of the new astronauts can be counted as being millennials, the most misunderstood of generations. The media depicts the 18to 35-year-olds as entitlement-addled, whining about being triggered by unfamiliar opinions and situations, and cowering in safe spaces. But there’s another brand of millennials: They are shedding their blood in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. And some want to go forth to that most unsafe of spaces, which resides beyond the Earth.
Let’s send these new astronauts out boldly into the black (to coin a phrase from “Firefly”), so that they might explore those strange new worlds, a la “Star Trek.” If they do this, they will win for the rest of us great knowledge and physical wealth that will enrich our civilization in ways that would more than justify the cost, in both treasure and lives.
More important, the newly made NASA astronauts will have created something that this century has sorely lacked and which people desperately need — something wonderful.