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Shoot the moon

Adam LaMascus
The Commuter

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The U.S. has officially bombed the moon as of Friday, Oct. 9.

NASA fired a rocket into the moon, creating a large explosion and crater. “Why?” you may ask. The answer is simple: they want to see if there is water or ice on the moon under its surface. So they bomb the moon, then they have a second satellite photograph the crater and dust to observe any traces of that precious, life-giving substance.

The main reason I bring this up is that this is one of the first major steps of Project Constellation. What is Project Constellation? It’s NASA’s mission to set up a permanent base on the moon and eventually use that as a springboard to set up a base on Mars. You can look it up at www.nasa.gov; it is a truly fascinating and exciting idea, that we could have colonies on the moon and mars within 100 years.

From what I read on the news websites, a lot of people are asking why we don’t just look for water once we arrive on the moon, as opposed to spending $79 million to blast it with a large rocket. The reason becomes apparent when you realize that the initial landings on the moon will only last about a week per mission, and that they would need to spend that time digging deep under the moon’s surface to search for water, a time-consuming and extremely hazardous proposition considering the environment. Not only that, but the cost per mission is not cheap either, and while I could not find any concrete figures on the NASA website, they are definitely very pricey. Why risk life, limb, and spend weeks and multiple missions doing what could be done with one rocket, one satellite, and a few hours?

Another issue, one that I have seen personally, is the question of why we even want to go to the moon and Mars. That question is one I cannot honestly give a truly satisfactory answer to. You either understand or you don’t. As someone who never really grew out of that childhood desire to be an astronaut, the concept of seeing a moon and Mars base in my lifetime makes me giddy like a schoolboy. I can understand the perspectives of other people though; one of my friends has said: “because we haven’t screwed Earth up bad enough, now we need to go ruin the moon and Mars?” I suppose as a History major I should know better, but as an irrepressible optimist I also think we can manage and learn.

As for the people who complain that we are in an economic crisis, and that we shouldn’t be wasting the money, all I have to say is that unless we as a species suddenly get a lot better about using condoms, or start finding euthanasia acceptable on a large scale, the only future for humanity in which we don’t overpopulate and die, is a future as a space-faring species. We will run out of food, water, and space if we continue on our current course. Underwater cities are the only option for cities on Earth once we reach a certain point, and so far it seems we’re better at building stuff in space than we are at building stuff underwater.

While at times boggling, and really expensive, I support us putting all the money we can into space programs; it will teach us new things, expose us to new places, and possibly ensure the survival of our species, which I think is a worthy goal in itself. Lastly, I suppose that one of the reasons I support the space program so much is I like to imagine that some day I could watch the sun rise over the horizon of Mars.

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