Return to the Moon

The World Transformed

Phil and Stephen review the legacy of the first moon landing. We’re now as far in time from the moon landing as that event was from the end of World War I. What does it mean to live in a world where the moon landing is (practically) ancient history? Why is the moon landing still important? Writing for the L.A. Times, Ayn Rand had the following to say about Apollo 11: That we had seen a demonstration of man at his best, no one could doubt — this was the cause of the event’s attraction and of the stunned, numbed state in which it left us. And no one could doubt that we had seen an achievement of man in his capacity as a rational being — an achievement of reason, of logic, of mathematics, of total dedication to the absolutism of reality. How many people would connect these two facts, I do not know. https://bit.ly/2K3z2of Did landing on the moon bring us into another reality? Which leads us to this headline: Elon Musk says SpaceX could land on the moon in 2 years. A NASA executive says 'we'll partner with them, and we'll get there faster' if the company can pull it off. https://bit.ly/2Gvs22B The SLS isn’t even scheduled to fly until 2021. Musk says he could have us on the moon in that period of time. Even if he’s blowing smoke, who would bet that NASA on its own could get there faster? WT 491-816 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0