Where No One Has Really Gone Before

Musings of an Aging Mind

By Jack Bagley

As I write these words, four human beings are farther from their home world than any other people have ever been.
There are still people out there who don’t believe any of it ever happened. I truly feel sorry for those folks, and I’ll get into why in a bit.
The four-person crew of Artemis II – Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – made a loop around the Moon on the evening of April 6 and extended farther out into space than any crewed spacecraft has ever gone – 252,756 miles away from Earth.  They beat the record held by the crew of Apollo 13, which was set in 1970.
When the crew reached their historic milestone, Mission Control played a recording for them, one that was made by Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell before his death last year:
“Hello Artemis II! This is Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. Welcome to my old neighborhood. When Frank Borman and Bill Anders and I orbited the moon on Apollo 8, we got humanity’s first up close look at the Moon and got a view of the home planet that inspired and united people around the world. I’m proud to pass that torch on to you as you swing around the moon and lay the groundwork for missions to Mars, for the benefit of all. It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view. So, Reid and Victor and Christina and Jeremy, and all the great teams that are supporting you, good luck and Godspeed from all of us here on the good Earth.”
Lovell, in fact, was the first astronaut to go to the Moon twice – aboard Apollo 8 and the ill-fated Apollo 13. If any human could claim that as his “old neighborhood,” it was Jim Lovell.
The U.S. space program reached its zenith, I believe, when we had astronauts working on the Moon. Following the last lunar mission, Apollo 17, in 1972 we settled for low-Earth-orbit missions like the Skylab space station, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station.
All the while, the Moon beckoned us back. Finally, with all-new equipment and the latest technology, NASA has taken human beings back into deep space.
Many here on Earth decry this, claiming there are so many problems that could be fixed with the money being spent to go back. There indeed are problems here, and they are serious ones. But money isn’t the issue in fixing any of them.
Political will is the issue.
I’ve spoken about that before, so let me just say that most of the real, serious, life-affecting issues facing this nation and the world could indeed be fixed, and quite rapidly – if politics were not involved. Professional politicians don’t want those problems to be solved, because then they wouldn’t have anything to run for office on.
That’s a discussion for another column.
Here, though, I do want to address the people who are loud and proud about how we’ve never been to the Moon, never even been into space.
These are, to me, very frightened people.  The technology that had to be developed to do what has been done and is now being done again scares the willies out of them, because (in my view, anyway) it represents major changes in the world that they cannot understand.
So, like a child throwing a tantrum, they simply deny any of it happened, and go on about their day.
Which is fine.  If you want to believe that we have never been to the Moon, go right ahead. Heck, if you want to believe in the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and all that, be my guest.
Your belief does not make it so.
I’m reminded of a very old saying, one that I shall paraphrase here and one that truly describes my thoughts about the Moon-landing deniers:
To those who know the truth, no proof is needed.  To those who choose to believe lies, no proof is sufficient.
You can show them photos taken when the astronauts were on the Moon; show them the recent shots of the landing sites from new probes orbiting the Moon; show them the actual lunar rocks.  To them, it’s all made up, Hollywood effects.
I feel sorry for people who think that way.
The crew of Artemis II has set the new world record for how far people have gone from Earth.
I hope that record doesn’t stand for very long, and we break it very soon.