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The Moon: Mount Everest of 20th century space
exploration... and in more ways than one. This was the real goal.
This was the one that would prove that man was a space-faring race.
Orbit? Small potatoes. The Moon was the real prize.
The question of why we were going to the Moon and what we would do
when we got there was pretty much soft pedaled. Sometimes it was
for minerals, sometimes it was for pure science, sometimes it was to
beat the Communists before they set up missile bases, sometimes it was
to reinvigorate national spirits with a new frontier. Most of
the time it was just because it would be so COOL.
In the end,
the triumph of the Apollo programme was pretty much like that of the
Everest or the Perry expeditions. You had a pair of
men standing on a previously unobtainable goal after a journey of
entirely justifiable and praiseworthy effort, yet faced with the
aggravating question of "now what?" Small wonder that most of
the text spent on describing lunar expeditions of the future
concentrated on the trip rather than the reasons behind it. They
really didn't want to get to the Moon and on being asked how they felt
being able to say only: "Kind of good, kind of stupid."
Artwork copyright©
Bonestell Space Art, used with
permission
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