Last month, I was immersed in learning about the very early days of space travel. Even before there were actual rockets, sci fi writers like Verne inspired hobbyists to at least believe it was possible to send a rocket from Earth to the Moon. You can read the results of my research over at Magellan TV.
Yeah, NASA is taking us back to the moon. And Bezos, Musk, and Branson are trying to turn space travel into ,yawn, a commercial service that will ferry things and people up to space and back — like a rocket-based Mack truck. My take on all this is that the early pioneers, like the amazing Russian amateur rocket scientist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and the incredible engineers at NASA are not well known but we’re all living off their amazing work. That means you Mr. Musk: you’re standing on the shoulders of giants.
The other point in the article is that getting into space still ain’t easy, and that living out there even less so. Do I believe Mr. Mush when he predicts they’ll be a huge self-sustaining city on Mars by 2050? It makes for good PR and brand boosting but the whole project is nuts. Back to reality: NASA is hoping to set up a tiny space basecamp on the moon in the next few years as part of its Project Artemis. I’l settle for a few astronauts able to live on the moon for a week or two as a major accomplishment. Bonus points if they can eventually mine lunar ice to make their own water and O2!