Quote:
Originally Posted by kinetic
I remember reading that...and that was in 1960s-70s dollars too!
Don't write us all off! 
I think another tragedy is that Australia doesn't have an active space
program up and running from the early momentum of the Woomera era.
I'm still glad to have lived within this small window of human history
though.
My late grandfather made me so proud. From his perspective he was
born in the 1910s, learnt to fly a Gypsy Moth. Planes were a new
invention!. His son, my Dad learnt to fly too...in a DH Chipmunk.
Grandpa was fascinated by technology and kept up with it too with
a passion until his passing. He followed the 50s and 60s early test
programs for Jets and the x-planes.
Saw the moon landings and shuttle programs.
Saw in the Pioneer and Voyager missions, Viking and Galileo.
What an era to have lived your allocated existence!.
And in his 80's Grandpa could still operate the latest VCR and camcorders
and set his own digital watch. 
Whatever happens in the next few decades will not alter the fact for me
that I feel very priveliged to have lived right now!
Steve |
I'm not writing us all off.....but the fact is there's only a few of us who even remember Apollo or even care about the space program then or now. Most of this is due to ignorance and a pathetic lack of education....on the part of the system. And you can thank the much vaunted Sir Robert Menzies for canning our nascent space endeavours back in the mid 60's, as he thought there was no future in it (and that is on record in Hansard).
The problem is no one even knows what's happening with space. I can tell you now, from personal experience, that I have come across a great many people that don't even look up at the Moon, let alone the stars, at night!!!!. I doubt that many of them would even know why we have seasons or that our planet orbits a star (and that was borne out in a survey in the US back in '98. A survey of 40 million people of all socioeconomic backgrounds....3/4 of them didn't even know that the Earth orbits the Sun...and in 1 year!!!!!!). What does all that tell you??.
My grandad passed away before the space race got going (he was born in 1888), but I'm sure he would've been fascinated by all our earlier achievements in flight....he was a chemical engineer and loved science. My own interest was kindled by my father, who was also an engineer and loved science. I grew up on Apollo, Mariner, Viking, Pioneer and Voyager so I know and love anything to do with the space program, but this present effort lacks everything these older programs even stood for. It has no momentum, except amongst the community to which it belongs. You don't hear too many people talking about it in the streets or even any extensive coverage on the news, like you did with the other programs. Remember when Voyager 2 passed by Neptune....they devoted an entire night's schedule just to cover that on the ABC!!!!. Now, they land a couple of probes on Mars, and it gets one sound bite on the night it happens, right at the back of the news bulletin as an afterthought and then nothing. Maybe a few mentions over the years, every now and then.
Or what about when the Vikings landed there....I can remember Carl Sagan rambling on for over an hour talking about when the first pics came in!!!!. Now, how many people would even know that the movie "Contact" was based on a book written by him?? How many people have seen or would remember seeing "Cosmos" on TV??. Not many. How many people would know who Sir Patrick Moore is???. Even less. Arthur C Clarke??. How many people would know he invented the concept of the telecommunications satellite back in 1945-6??. Less still.
That's the problem.
I for one, feel privileged to be alive, regardless of what era it is or what is happening on a technical front. But when I see wasted opportunities occur because of incompetence and lack of will, intelligence, thought, foresight, sheer narrowmindedness, apathy etc etc, I have to wonder about those people that are in the positions to do something about it. Those that supposedly run the show on our behalf and in who's name they carry on with these endeavours. If, in fact, they are only responding to and promulgating the will of the people, then that's a sad indictment of the people as a whole. I, for one, choose to think that some of us care enough to not feel that way, but there's just not enough of us to make too much of a difference, unfortunately.