Not Because It Is Easy
by Tom Neven on 07/16/2009 at 9:24 PM
Forty years ago today I sat in the back of my family's 1967 VW Minibus parked alongside the Intracoastal Waterway a few miles north of the Kennedy Space Center. My dad had awakened us at zero-dark-thirty to make the hour trek from our home to Titusville, and we'd gotten here well before dawn to join hundreds of other cars parked at this makeshift viewing station.
It was hot and sticky, even at this early hour -- normal for Florida in July. I was tired and really would rather have been somewhere else. My parents listened to a news broadcast on a static-y transistor radio, as did just about every other family around us.
I was only half paying attention. Hey, I was a bratty 13-year-old who was too cool to do things with his family. Suddenly, a ripple of excitement went through the throng. Then ... an incredibly loud roar from somewhere beyond the trees. Every head swiveled toward the sound. In a few seconds we could see the Saturn V rocket with a bright-orange flame propelling it skyward, arcing out over the early-morning Atlantic. A few seconds later a gentle whooshing of air passed over us -- the powerful rocket's shockwave.
We watched, mesmerized. This was Apollo 11, the first attempt to land a man on the moon. Here, all these years later, it's hard to imagine the excitement that ran through our country -- ran through the entire world -- at the thought of conquering the moon.
A few evenings later, my family gathered around the black-and-white TV in my parents' bedroom, watching grainy images of a lunar module sitting on the moon. Nothing had happened for hours. We listened in on conversations between the astronauts waiting to step out onto the moon's surface and mission control back on earth, a conversation full of technojargon, lots of "uhs and ahs," always accompanied by the distinctive beep when the speaker unkeyed his radio.
Then a bulky human form stepped out and clumsily made his way down the module's ladder. It was hard to tell what was going on because the image was very poor, lots of sharp blacks and whites with little contrast. One final hop at the bottom, and then came the famous words: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Huh!? What did he say? It makes no sense! We now know that Neil Armstrong managed to flub what was probably the most rehearsed line in history. But let's give him a break. Neil was one brave guy, as were all the astronauts. They rode what was basically a very large bomb into outer space and traveled thousands of miles from the tiny planet that sustains human life. Yes, scientists and engineers had worked out all the probabilities and determined it was relatively safe to be an astronaut, but nothing was guaranteed. Armstrong and his fellow astronauts, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, were there because President John Kennedy had challenged us as a nation to do great things during a September 1962 speech at Rice University.
Why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? ... We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do those other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
(I still chuckle at Kennedy's pronunciation of de-CADE and "The Simpsons" dead-on parody of it in Mayor Quimby.) Yes, there was some politics behind that speech. We were engaged in a space race with the Soviet Union, with bragging rights at stake. (We as a nation were mightily embarrassed when the Soviets beat us into space with Sputnik.) But there was also the sense of challenge behind Kennedy's speech. We as a nation were meant for greater things.
How different things are now. We seemingly have become a nation of whiners. Our "challenge" is to benefit ourselves, not do great things. Yes, I exaggerate, but not by a lot. Can you imagine a president today challenging us to do something as hard as building a space program almost from scratch and landing a man on the moon -- all within seven years? No, politics today seems nothing but me, me, me, gimme, gimme, gimme.
I'm reminded by this anniversary that it's good to do things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. How about you?
1. BDB said the following at 9:56 PM on Jul 16:
Hard to believe that 40 years ago, the government could get something like the moonshot done. (SIGH) We couldn't even rebuild the World Trade Center in 7 years.
However, the privately owned 7 World Trade Center building, which also collapsed on 9/11, was rebuilt in five years.
The lesson is that the government entities that control the replacement to the Twin Towers instead have a hole that stands as a monument to government incompetence and lack of vision.
2. K.L. said the following at 11:40 PM on Jul 16:
I have the same birthday as Neil Armstrong! Aug. 5th! I find astronomy to be fascinating (what little I know) and am absolutely amazed that we have become so technologically advanced that 40 years ago, we were able to send man to the moon. Or even just simply leaving the planet for that matter. Wow.
3. yipeng said the following at 1:44 AM on Jul 17:
Great photos of Apollo 11....
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/
4. Kelly said the following at 1:58 AM on Jul 17:
Ever since I was a little girl, I've dreamed of going to Mars. Growing up in the 80's, I realised that the space program that had once been so-forward-thinking was struggling, and through the 90's, decaying.
Where's the dream, to reach for the stars?
I completely agree, we've become completely self-focussed. And many may argue that going to Mars is equally selfish/self-serving, but it's part of the human spirit, something God gave us, to reach as far as we can go.
5. Adam said the following at 6:56 AM on Jul 17:
I'm writing this from about two miles away from the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, where a big celebration is planned to celebrate the anniversary. I came here 9 years ago to first be a Space Camp Counselor, and then I transferred to UAH to major in Aerospace Engineering. UAH is hard. I did well at first, but it didn't take long for some failures to get to me and burn me out. It started a vicious cycle that lasted for 5 years and will cost me about $80,000 in loans. After I was kicked out for a year, I had to make a decision: do I keep pursuing this? Do I go get an easier degree? I'm going to need a good job to pay back the money so there's some motivation there. But ultimately, the reason the school allowed me back and agreed to wipe away my old record and start fresh was because I demonstrated in my appeal the desire to persevere-not because it is easy, but because it is hard. And the only way I could be doing this is because I have pursued the Lord hard during these last two years and he has reshaped my character into a man that can and already is accomplishing this for His glory.
6. Adam said the following at 7:47 AM on Jul 17:
Perhaps we have just lost our imagination. I'm not even sure what a "great thing" would be today!
But what about health care? What about alternative energy? How about high speed rail? We have a President whose campaign slogan was "Yes, we can." Granted, he has a "D" instead of an "R" after his name. But wait a sec... so did Kennedy. Aren't these hard things though?
These are things that benefit some in the country, but then again, so was the moon landing.
Perhaps we could tackle aids. Determine that we will pump billions of dollars into finding a vaccine or a cure that will be available cheaply to the world because the government owns it - not private enterprise. Parkinsons? Cancer? Autism?
Then, would we be willing to pay an extra couple percent on our federal income taxes to make it possible?
7. DrLiz said the following at 11:13 AM on Jul 17:
Hey Adam, you must be sitting in my backyard!
I taught at UAH for seven years (not engineering), before I burned out. It's tough to get back up after failure and burnout, but I have grown so much through all of this. I have a much greater appreciation for my sinfulness (both gross and "subtle") and for God's sanctifying and refining grace. I'm now thankful he didn't leave me complacent in my successes, but forced me to grow and confront my failures (both professional and personal).
Huntsville is a great place to live - I love driving past the space center every day! UAH is a hard school, and I'm impressed that you are perservering in your original major. (In my experience, the business school inherited a number of wanabee engineers each year who decided engineering was too difficult!) Keep at it!
8. John said the following at 12:02 PM on Jul 17:
Why does the impetus for "doing great things" need to come from the government?
Where is the rule written that says or said that is was the government's job, least of all the federal government's, to land on the moon?
Sure, one could argue about national security, but EVERYTHING could be tied into and justified by framing it as a matter of national security.
Almost entirely before 1860 and to an ever lesser degree following until today, it was individuals who were the impetuses to do great things.
They needed no bureaucracy to start things off or a tax increase.
They did things the American way: through hard work, personal sacrifice and with the knowledge that they would be rewarded for their efforts.
Too bad that America is now dead and gone!
9. Jason said the following at 2:22 PM on Jul 17:
John (#8): Are you serious? The total cost of the Apollo program (in inflation adjusted dollars) was about $130 billion. Who else has that kind of money? Do you? Do you really think the space program isn't worth the money we've spent because it was the government spending the money?
Private industry is only going to fund things that can return a profit within a given timeframe (usually 5 years or less), which is why things that take a long time to do or cost a lot of money are funded by the government.
(full disclosure: I work for a government contractor on the Shuttle)
10. Adam said the following at 3:32 PM on Jul 17:
@DrLiz (#7)
Thanks so much for the encouragement! I do get the "switch to business" advice every once in awhile :) It probably doesn't help that I'm acing Macroeconomics with Dr. Orman this summer for my gen ed requirement. I work in the drive-thru at the Starbucks in front of Costco if you want to say hi.
11. Adam said the following at 3:37 PM on Jul 17:
also @DrLiz (#7)
I can totally relate to being forced to confront my failure and growing in the process. Thanks again for sharing what God has done!
12. Sarah P. said the following at 8:26 AM on Jul 20:
Individuals doing great things in space:
LiftPort Group developing the Space Elevator with carbon nanotubes (http://www.liftport.com/)
Or the X Prize Foundation -- delivering prizes to commercial entities that accomplish the capability to launch things into orbit and have them come back down intact, with goals to replace space shuttle (http://www.xprize.org/).
13. BDB said the following at 5:42 PM on Jul 20:
Yes, the X-Prize competition was an interesting demonsration that it doesn't, in fact, cost $100 Billion to do some of these space-related things.
14. Jason said the following at 8:41 AM on Jul 21:
BDB (#13): It's much easier to do something now for cheaper since NASA did all the R&D 40 years ago; shouldn't be as hard to avoid making the same mistakes...although it's still rocket science (witness SpaceX failing on their first three launches). Also, if you read about the Ansari X-prize, you'll see that they spent $100 million to win the $10 million prize.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansari_X_Prize
Not to mention, sub-orbital flight is an order of magnitude easier than actual orbit. Something you might be interested in is the X-33 project that NASA and Lockheed worked on about 10 years ago.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2006/01/x-33venturestar-what-really-happened/
15. Ted Slater said the following at 12:38 PM on Jul 21:
Jason (#14) -- I'm not sure we should give NASA so much credit. All they did was reverse engineer what they found at the crash site in Roswell.
;-)
16. BDB said the following at 5:02 PM on Jul 21:
Ok, Jason (#14) prompted me to do some Order of Magnitude math.
Cost to win Ansari X Prize = $100 Million
Order of magnitude to orbit= $1 Billion
Two more orders of magnitude = $100 Billion
Boeing prides itself on putting paying payloads on the FIRST flight of a new rocket design. They're that confident their design won't blow up. Of course, Boeing charges quite a bit more than SpaceX to get something into orbit.
Of course, that still supports my first point above, it is government that is incompetent, private enterprise executes much better.
17. Leah said the following at 5:53 AM on Jul 22:
I understand and appreciate your sentiment.
But I think there are more important things to do than "do great things". Buzz Aldrin is now encouraging Obama to set America's sights on Mars by 2035. Why doesn't America instead set its sights on eradicating poverty in its streets? Decreasing the highschool drop out rate? Curing cancer?
I realise America is working on these things, but just one space flight costs a LOT of money. Can you IMAGINE the thousands of millions, probably billions of dollars it would cost to run a space program to put people on Mars? Could that money not be spent in a better way?
Oh and while I'm here, another plug for Australia ;) ...we are the only ones who recorded the moon landing. We sent our tapes to NASA... who then promptly lost most of them.
18. John said the following at 12:36 PM on Jul 23:
Jason,
You're putting the cart before the horse.
How do you know it would have cost that much if it was done by entrepreneurs instead of a federal bureaucracy?
In case you didn't know, government projects tend to have a few "small" budget overruns every now and then.
Anyway, you didn't bother to answer my questions, so it’s clear you're a statist that's not interested in examining your own preconceptions.
But my main point was doing great things should start with the individual, not a bureaucrat.
19. Jason said the following at 6:20 PM on Jul 23:
Hmmm, one at a time.
Ted (#15): Touche...well done, sir :)
BDB (#16): I may not have made my point well. I wasn't trying to compare the X-prize to Apollo, I was more trying to compare it to X-33 (single stage to orbit concept), which ran about $1.3 billion before funding was yanked, or maybe to current shuttle operations, which runs about $1.5 billion a launch over the cost of the program as far as the order of magnitude logic. It will be interesting to see if the Falcon 9 Heavy will be able to compete with Atlas V or Delta IV ($78 million versus $240 million).
Leah (#17): NASA takes $18 billion a year out of a $3 trillion budget. I'd look at the war in Iraq for the money before I'd look at NASA.
John (#18): To be fair, you didn't answer my questions either. I'll bite. The impetus for doing great things doesn't need to come from the government. But when something is expensive, difficult to do and doesn't have an obvious direct return on investment, then the free market won't pay for it. For example, the Hubble telescope. I doubt you'd find venture capital to pay for it. Does that mean it wasn't worth it?
There is no rule that says the government's job is to land on the moon. I still support it.
And for the last one, I don't know that entrepreneurs couldn't have done it for less. Cheaper isn't always better. My point is that it wouldn't get done with private funding. And that just because it wouldn't get funded, does not mean it is not worth doing.
20. BDB said the following at 7:35 PM on Jul 23:
Jason (#19) wrote:
>>I was more trying to compare it to X-33 (single stage to orbit concept), which ran about $1.3 billion before funding was yanked,<<
I didn't realize funding had been pulled on that one. I remember that. Could never figure out how it could work, though, with chemical propulsion.
Now, if we had a Minbari power source...