On this episode of Our Island Universe: We made it to the moon... then we stopped going.
Note: Throughout the month of July, Our Island Universe is celebrating the legacy of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
Shanil Virani, Director of the John C. Wells Planetarium in Harrisonburg, VA.
Follow on Twitter as shanilv
Transcript:
Between 1969 and 1972, 12 MEN (no women!) walked on the Moon. Then we stopped going. The Apollo program captivated the attention of the American public, brought glory to our space program, inspired millions of Americans to think about the technological future to come. Young boys and girls dreamt of being astronauts when they grew up. Today, however, nearly 1 in 10 Americans believe that the Moon landings were a hoax, NASA is woefully underfunded, but even more alarmingly, we now have fewer Americans (as a proportion of the total) pursuing physics in college then even before Sputnik. American distrust of science has never been higher. Our science and technological advantage is receding quickly.
In the interim, China has ramped up is space exploration. It has already sent a spacecraft around the Moon and has ambitious plans to send Chinese astronauts to not only the Moon, but perhaps also Mars. India has already launched a spacecraft to Mars that is now orbiting the Red Planet, with plans for a follow-up mission by the end of the decade. The Europeans recently landed a robotic explorer on an comet! There now even private companies discussing plans to mine minerals on the moon and even on asteroids!
Our leadership in space exploration is in jeopardy. Will we re-ignite our drive for human space exploration or will we fall behind and cede leadership to other countries?
“The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.” (Excerpt from JFK's "Man to the Moon" speech)