It was a simple question, given rhetorically by then president John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 12 September 1962 in the baking heat of Rice University in Houston, Texas and its simplicity understated its significance
The answer, no doubt, is that they play because it is a challenge
And it is the challenge of the unknown, of being ready to seek what is over the next hill, to overcome the difficult environment that maybe there, and to persist; that is the simple explanation for why the technical achievement that was Project Apollo was undertaken and accomplished
Humanity had wanted to go for millenia and that manifested itself in myth and legend, books and film, and in the earliest days of the moving picture too. It just took a race between super powers to realise it
The challenge is still there, to go and stay and not just at the Moon. Mars looms large in peoples' imaginations and space agencies see it as the greater goal. Humanity will go back to the Moon and do the other thing
The simple question that remains is, will the nation that leads that great endeavour speak of Rice playing Texas or Shanghai playing Beijing or Delhi playing Mumbai?
The answer, no doubt, is that they play because it is a challenge
And it is the challenge of the unknown, of being ready to seek what is over the next hill, to overcome the difficult environment that maybe there, and to persist; that is the simple explanation for why the technical achievement that was Project Apollo was undertaken and accomplished
Humanity had wanted to go for millenia and that manifested itself in myth and legend, books and film, and in the earliest days of the moving picture too. It just took a race between super powers to realise it
The challenge is still there, to go and stay and not just at the Moon. Mars looms large in peoples' imaginations and space agencies see it as the greater goal. Humanity will go back to the Moon and do the other thing
The simple question that remains is, will the nation that leads that great endeavour speak of Rice playing Texas or Shanghai playing Beijing or Delhi playing Mumbai?
on July 20, 2009 6:47 PM | Reply
These days, America is considered the boon docks of technology. Shanghai, Shenzen, Hong Kong, Taipei are where the innovation is happening. It would be weird if China didn't lead the world beyond low Earth orbit.
on July 21, 2009 1:31 PM | Reply
As in earlier days, China doesn't feel the need to dominate the world, but to be respected. If this goal can be reached by sending two astronauts in low earth orbit, possibly with a small station already in orbit to go to, then this will be enough. Considering the pace of China's space program, this seems to me a lot more viable than to think that they will initiate and lead a second space race.
on July 24, 2009 5:21 AM | Reply
Sadly, despite JFK's high-flying(sorree!) words, the real motivation for Apollo lay in the Soviet Russians pulling stunts in space that continually made America look backward and behind. Nothing was further from the truth in terms of technology and capability. But to the American politicians and public that was unappreciated and mattered little since Allies looking to the U.S were being propagandized to the contrary.
The decision which got the U.S to the moon had taken place in the backrooms of the USAF in 1957, and by the time of JFK's announcement had translated into hardware in the form of the Rocketdyne F-1 engine which was in the midst of severe combustion stability problems even as Kennedy spoke.
But the "Ultimate Stunt" gave the Americans the opportunity to leap ahead with what they knew - from recconaisance satellite data - was far beyond the Soviet capability in 1962. So it proved, and America "re-took the lead" as the nation desperately wanted.
So where have they gone since in manned spaceflight? Nowhere. What fine examples they make: those laurels must be thoroughly flattened by now. An opportunity for someone else. At the current rate of progress it probably will be the Chinese!