A Dream of Mars?

By way of celebrating the 40th Anniversary of their historic moon shot, the Apollo 11 crew practically ignored our nearest neighbor. They'd been there, and, well, they'd done that. Time to move on. High time. Past Time, even.

No, their eyes were on Mars. More accurately, their dreams were directed to that red and (most likely) lifeless planet, since they will never make it there themselves. Too much time has passed since their historic achievement, and they weren't exactly kids back then.

So what is it that has these men, who accomplished all they were ever going to personally achieve in space exploration forty years ago, so fired up on going to Mars? Perhaps it's just because it's there. Way out there. Maybe it's because the trip would require a stretching of technology and human determination.

It might just be possible these good fellows were recruited by someone to pitch this trip. Recruited by someone who believes this anniversary and their prestige can help close a very hard sell in these tough economic times. With money being poured on fiscal fires at every turn, President Obama, if not Congress, could justify reluctance to spend hundreds of billions on a Mars trip - an 'investment' that would generate no immediate return.

The astronauts pitched the value we received from the ground-breaking technology the Apollo program generated. It's likely the computer I type this on wouldn't exist otherwise, nor would the internet in it's present form. Many hope a trip to Mars would do more of the same, while fearing a return to the moon wouldn't.

They could be right. But, if so, I think only partly. A return to the moon would require new technologies, or at least require a rapid evolution of technologies that exist now in research laboratories. Robotics, for instance.

A return to the moon makes so much sense it pains me to see Aldrin and Collins downplaying it (Armstrong came off neutral - the man's beyond influence, it seems). Such a return would stretch technology, and lessons learned would serve a later Mars journey.

Of course, it's possible that the Apollo 11 astronauts could be thinking that government funded missions should focus far out - at the bleeding edge. Perhaps they believe 'backfill' trips are better left to private enterprise.

A bleeding Mars, and the Moon as a 'suburban' development project. Dream or nightmare?