The Right Choice

It was forty years ago today that human beings first set foot on the moon. The first moonwalk (or probably more accurately, moon hop) was the culmination of years of effort put into the Apollo Program at a cost of billions of dollars and, tragically, at least 3 human lives. The Program itself was built upon thousands of years of human advancement in science and technology.

The Apollo program ranks with the Manhattan project as the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century, and as one of the greatest of mankind's achievements in age. I think it goes without saying that it represents the best that humanity has to offer in terms of knowledge, ingenuity, and sheer force of will. All too often the skills of mankind have been turned to devious, crass, immoral or inhumane purposes, and what the Apollo program represents, more than just the conquering of a frontier, is what our species can accomplish peacefully and creatively.

Naturally, its easy to point out that the Apollo program was merely an extension of the American military industrial complex, and the entire space race was merely a measuring contest between two rival superpowers who owned the most deadly arsenals in the history of the world. Its also easy to point out how many a select Congressional district was the benefit of NASA largess, something which no doubt helped to push the program forward with such speed and enthusiasm.

These criticisms, while valid, should not overshadow the incredible achievements of NASA and the Apollo program. It was an accomplishment of will and spirit and guts as well as science. President Kennedy's famous speech to Rice University, excerpted here, addressed the goal of a moon landing not as something to hope for or dream about but as something we would do because it was worth doing in itself.

"We choose to go to the moon"

It sounds like hubris or perhaps bluster, and perhaps it is, but its also a reminder of the potential of mankind in those brief moments when we decide to pursue great things.