The Moon: Enough is Enough
P., H.
So we have left footprints on the face of the moon. An admirable feat. We can congratulate ourselves, we can be proud, we have shown that it can be done. Most likely, it had to be...
...In going to the moon, we have shown that we can do the impossible...
...So we have left footprints on the face of the moon...
...With all the courage it took, with the teamwork of thousands and the backing of a powerful government, this trip to the moon was not as impressive as Galileo's calculation of the orbits of the Jupiter moons...
...There are many who can't go to a ball game...
...We can congratulate ourselves, we can be proud, we have shown that it can be done...
...Now let us show that we can do the possible...
...Let people climb Mount Everest at their own risk, but let's not spend 30 billion dollars to flatten the mountain for them...
...But despite the plans to build space stations there is no reason to believe our lives will be affected by the exploration of the moon...
...Someone wrote a letter to the New York Times, saying that the show cost every one of us only $13 a year over a couple of years—no more than the price of two tickets to a ball game...
...We have conquered space, now let us conquer war...
...this is not science, it is technology...
...even the excitement will wear off rather rapidly...
...now let us break the bonds of poverty on earth...
...We have discovered no new law of nature...
...Touching...
...Not so touching...
...And when the interviewer did not seem to understand the question, the little boy said: perhaps he was looking to see whether you could plant food on the moon...
...we still keep converting the mysterious universe into something man can handle...
...Unwittingly, the writer has revealed something very deep: the moon trip was a show forced on us but for which we nevertheless have to pay...
...Future gains of further trips are likely to be marginal...
...Remarkable, admirable, but finally an achievement more comparable to a new record in sports than to a great discovery...
...We are still con quering nature, we lash out into space...
...Columbus did not know where he was going and what he was going to find or how long it was going to take him...
...To plant another flag...
...Most likely, it had to be done even though the moon will never be the same again for lovers and thieves...
...But the total cost will rise nevertheless, and entire industries that now have a vested interest in continuing the adventure are likely to propose more complicated and extended explorations...
...Let us invite the Soviet Union to a joint trip to the moon and then sign an agreement to stop further space explorations by individual nations...
...What for...
...Future trips may be cheaper because the original investment will be distributed over, and amortized by, individual events...
...Some physicists' curiosity may be satisfied a little earlier—but is it worth the expense...
...Lindbergh opened a new era of worldwide communications...
...But let us be frank...
...he opened a new continent for settlement...
...Let us put all further projects into the hands of a United Nations agency and give it a limited budget not to exceed the budget of its Development Fund...
...A little boy of six or seven, interviewed on TV, asked: why did he go to the moon...
...We have broken the fetters of being earthbound...
...Our inevitable Vice President already has suggested a trip to Mars, ignorant, as usual, of what he was talking about, but not so unaware of the popular appeal such secondhand visions have...
...We hope more and more people in public office will say, enough is enough...
...we have not overcome gravity but used it...
Vol. 16 • September 1969 • No. 5
