WEEKLY WHINE

Why Apollo didn't work

This week we "celebrate" the 30th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11. I put "celebrate" in quotation marks because of a wonderful thing called retrospect. Yes, it was a great accomplishment that inspired a generation of scientists. But what else was it?

By the time Apollo 11 took place, the steps to cancel the Apollo program had already been taken. The immense Saturn V launch vehicle was taken out of production, replaced by nothing but a set of lofty hopes for some new vehicle that would carry humans into low Earth orbit on a regular basis. Plans for Apollo 18, 19, and 20 were in jeopardy, and any serious accident at any point along the series of missions would probably be its abrupt demise.

Americans had spent the entire decade trying to beat the Soviets to the Moon. Soviets had spent the entire decade trying to beat the Americans to the Moon. The result, of course, was in favour of the United States, which said, "Now what?" The fantastic goal of putting people on Earth's closest neighbour and bringing them back had been achieved.

We all know the story; it turned out a goal rather than a stepping-stone. Americans expected that with the first human landing on the Moon, lunar colonies and space stations, not to mention space hotels and weekend holidays to Mars, were coming in the near future. Now, thirty years later, we have a few attempts at space stations, no lunar colonies, no space hotels, no trips to Mars, and in fact, no trips to the Moon in 27 years. What gives?

People lost Why. In the heat of the space race, both sides had an excellent Why: Because we want to beat the other superpower. This was Why Kennedy challenged the nation to land on the Moon and come back safely by 1970. He cared not about space exploration or discovering the Moon or populating the Moon. He cared about doing all that before the Soviet Union did. For each first by one side, the other would soon follow. Explorer I followed Sputnik shortly. Alan Shepard followed Yuri Gagarin within a month. Competition drove the market.

So there was Neil Armstrong on the surface of the Moon. He was standing on that circular thing that you see frequently in the evening. He was standing, for all practical purposes, in the sky. This astounded people. The Moon was so close, yet so far away. It didn't seem like reality in fact. Yet here were the images and sounds of him and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon; it was the most remarkable feat ever undertaken by human hands.

How did people top that? Equally remarkable was the speed of the Apollo program's collapse: there were many who were willing to cancel the entire program after the problems aboard Apollo 13. The government, at least, waited until Apollo 14, which was completely successful. Encouraged by this response, it permitted the motion of Apollos 15-17.

This is because there was no longer a Why. For everyone who planned the missions, it was Why: Because we want to find out how the Moon formed, what has happened to it in the past, and why there are no maria on the far side. But the general public became Why: Who cares? Forget it.

Since then there has been no serious Why as to the exploration of space. And yes, there will be a true Why soon. It will be something along the lines of Why: Because we can make serious money off tourism in space.