Here's something that blew my mind -

[cab67]

I teach college-level science classes. I had a graduate seminar and undergrad class today.

I mentioned the Artemis II mission and asked if they were going to watch. And I was mostly met with blank looks.

They literally had no idea it was going to happen.

How the f-word can this be? We're sending human beings to the moon for the first time in 54 years. The crew includes the first woman, first person of color, and first non-US astronaut to fly to the moon.

This should be huge. But it isn't.

I don't think it's apathy. I think there's just so much other shit going on these days that a crewed mission to the bloody moon - something truly historic - can't rise to the top of the headlines.

I cannot understate what Apollo meant for me. I was a month away from turning two when Apollo 11 launched, so I don't remember it. But I remember the later missions. Mom would put me in front of the TV, and I'd watch the men in the puffy white suits doing that weird bounding walk on the moon.

This was a central aspect of my childhood. It's part of the reason I became a scientist.

Harrison Schmitt (lunar module pilot, Apollo 17) visited the museum I was working at as a postdoc. I might as well have been meeting the Pope or Peter Townshend. He served in the Senate as a Republican, and he became a climate change denier, but he walked on the moon. That's way cooler than anything I'll ever do.

This is why my feelings about crewed spaceflight are mixed. Robotic probes can do most of the things astronauts do. They're cheaper, and they're safer. But I cannot forget how inspirational watching human beings on the surface of the moon was to me at a young age, and I have to hope children now can find the same kind of inspiration.

Assuming, of course, they and their parents even knew it was happening.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. This government isn't interested in promoting that kind of success story -- a diverse crew working on science for

everyone. And NASA is going to be careful about what it promotes.

[Maru Kitteh]

2. You nailed it here.

100%

[cab67]

3. There was a story about this on NPR earlier today.

Before Old Colostomy was sworn in, NASA's promotional material mentioned the diversity of the crew. It was all taken out once the war on "wokeness" was announced.

But still - they're flying to the moon! The moon! Even if the crew was all-male, all-white, and all-American, this would be an amazing thing to follow.

[a kennedy]

4. And the crew IS STILL A BLACK MAN, A WOMAN, AND ya know two white guys.......

And so sorry, they are ALL PREPARED TO DO THIS.

[cab67]

7. 100 percent agree!

The only crew member who's never been in space is the Canadian astronaut. The others are all veterans.

It's sad that our head of state cannot bring himself to acknowledge the significance of this event. That's probably because he's not on board himself.

[ColoringFool]

36. Trump Wants To Know Only If He Can Profit. If Not, PFFFFT.

[mercuryblues]

39. I think that is why he chose tonight to give his "speech"

Knock to launch out of the headlines. The news cycle is all about him again.

I'm shocked he didn't cancel this, it was Biden's idea to begin with.

[ColoringFool]

35. That's A BINGO! NASA Is Lucky Trump Probably Didn't Know, Either! "DEI! STOP! DEI!"

[Phoenix61]

5. I was 8 years old when Neil Armstrong took that

giant leap for mankind. I was staying with my grandparents and didn't understand why they let me stay up way past my bedtime. My grandfather was born in 1901 and my grandmother in 1908. When my grandfather was a child they took the horse and wagon into New York City. I can't imagine what it meant to him to see that. Sure would love to ask him.

[cab67]

6. Your grandfather was born before the first airplane took flight.

I often wonder how people who grew up knowing only wood-and-canvas biplanes felt when they saw a monoplane, much less a jet and actual spaceflight.

[lastlib]

38. My grandmother was born in 1903....

...two months before the Wright brothers made the first flight. She lived to see the international space station, and robotic flights to the planets, died a year before the Columbia disaster. What she lived through was astonishing.

I was born a week before Sputnik I--but I can't say that I have seen quite the magnitude of scientific achievement that she did. I rather attribute that to Reagan's and repuglikans' anti-science attitude. Reagan killed the semiconductor supercollider; he and future repugs cut budgets for science and space exploration. TBH, I'm still pissed that Reagan took us off the path to the metric system. That was low--leaves us still in the company of Liberia and Myanmar.

[OldBaldy1701E]

29. I was five.

I watched it avidly.

Between this and Star Trek, I was all about space, the final frontier.

[Bayard]

40. We must be about the same age

My Dad and I watched it on our little black and white TV. He took pictures of the TV, and they came out blurry and green, but I wish I had them still.

Also a Trekki!

[LeftInTX]

8. It wasn't well promoted

We've also had decades of the ISS

[Ms. Toad]

9. I didn't hear about it until 30 minutes or so before the launch.

Too much else going on in the world.

[cab67]

10. You've got a point.

At the same time, though, the first space shuttle flight was after a decade of Salyut and Skylab missions, not to mention Apollo. The early missions were heavily covered.

[brer cat]

11. I agree. The lack of interest, much less excitement, is

surprising to me. I think as a society, we have lost our sense of wonder, even our ability to dream of things we haven't sen or experienced. I still find space exploration exciting, just as I did for the first moon landing.

[Diamond_Dog]

41. Me too. I was in grade school when all the space stuff was going on.

We had a small portable Tv at home and my mother brought it to school to our classroom so our class could watch a splashdown. I can’t begin to to describe the fascination by literally everyone in America over the space program. It was such a big deal! The astronauts were rock stars and every kid wanted to be one when they grew up. It defies explanation in my mind why people don’t seem to care about it all that much anymore. Right wing propaganda has made low information individuals distrust and dismiss science. They are more interested in what the Kardashians are doing.

[Keepthesoulalive]

43. When your future looks promising

These things look incredible but if you are worried about the necessities like food shelter and gas, it might not seem like something you really care about. The tech bros have put their stink all over space adventure and it might seem like a waste of money and an expensive ego trip.

[brer cat]

48. Very good points. I am 79 so I was old enough to feel

the thrills of the early space flights and then live to see the many scientific advances we had because of the space programs.

The tech billionaires enriching themselves while many families struggle for basic necessities does tarnish the shine. I do understand that.

[harumph]

12. It's just not that inspiring imo. We've done it before - several times.

And in 1969 there was still this sense that we the people had agency and the arc of history and all of that. Now come to find
out we have billionaires in charge of our government that literally talk about the possibility of "thinning the herd." What would inspire
me is 1 million people converging on DC and bringing tribunals with them.

[cab67]

21. Not inspiring?

We're sending human beings to another celestial body. How can that not be inspiring?

Yeah, we've done it before. But not for a very long time, and kids who might develop an interest in science were born after all of that. To actually see it means something.

I would never argue that this is more important than other issues we face. But it's still important.

[Figarosmom]

13. So did any of them show any

Interest after you told them about it?

[cab67]

18. They did, in fact.

They just hadn't been aware of it.

[BeneteauBum]

14. I was amazed at how little coverage was aired by MSM

Just sucks!

Peace ☮️

[littlemissmartypants]

15. They're probably more concerned about where they're going to get money to eat

Or what kind of healthcare they will be able to afford if they get sick. Or if they can afford a place to sleep.

And hooking up and beer...

(Just to add a little levity to my serious reply.)

Personally, I'd rather people had healthcare and SNAP benefits.

We've just subsidized a bunch of oligarchs to get to this point. Why can't we just send those oligarchs on a one-way trip and be done with them?

[cab67]

23. Same arguments were made during the Apollo era.

If we're going to shift funding from other government programs to pay for healthcare and SNAP, I would rather not have it diverted from science and technology programs.

[Niagara]

16. I didn't hear about it until this morning

And that's because I was changing radio channels on my way to work between the obnoxious Burger King and donut commercials.


I don't remember anyone on DU previously mentioning the launch either? It's certainly possible I skipped over the name Artemis too.

On Edit: There was a previous post yesterday and on Monday, which I overlooked.

[Kablooie]

17. I didn't know about it until the Daily podcast this morning.

I usually keep up with science news but haven’t seen anything about this.

[LymphocyteLover]

19. I'm embarrassed to say I only heard about it today! It sure wasn't promoted much buy the govt or the media!

[oldsoldierfadingfast]

20. One of the thrills of my life...

was when the wife of one of NASA's top designers invited me, my son and another friend to Cape Canaveral to watch a launch. We stayed in the same motel as the wife and hubby.
The night before the launch. I went to a cocktail party attended by all the biggies except the crew (they were in quarantine). The atmosphere in that room was electric with expectation. By and large, I found all the movers and shakers to be regular, "down-to-earth" people willing to explain what was expected to happen in language I could understand and they were very attentive to my 9 y.o.
Sorry to say we had to watch the recovery on TV!
Wish I could find son's "What I Did Over Summer" report; but, I still have pictures.
I did not know about Artemis until 30 min. before launch! My, how times have changed!

[NBachers]

22. I saw the dweeby blapping TV head talking with a NASA scientist; he said the moon was 250 million miles from Earth.

The NASA guy didn't correct him, but I quickly lost interest and shut the blapping dweeb off.

[cab67]

24. your loss.

[johnp3907]

25. I learned about it the day before yesterday.

[Buddyzbuddy]

26. A woman, a person of color and a non American.

Maybe they thought is was just another means of deportation.

[LNM]

27. I knew nothing about it until today

Granted I’ve been out of the news loop for a week but still saw enough to know a lot of the bad shit going on.

[thought crime]

28. Been there Done that?

The public likes to see Elon Musk's rockets blow up and perform feats of aeronautical wonder. The Moon Show is a rerun.

Okay sarcasm, but at this point I'd prefer to see money going into building some Floating Offshore Wind Farms. Save this planet first.

[Javaman]

30. Because in the 54 years since we were last on the moon

The repukes refined the fine are of “stupidifying” the nation

[johnp3907]

31. You post reminded me of this song:

?si=ESvdZVDo5a6fW79t

"My son and I stand beneath the great night sky
And gaze up in wonder
I tell him the tale of Apollo and he says
'Why did they ever go?'"

[Jack Valentino]

32. I'm old enough to remember watching the first moon landing on TV---

I was six years old at the time.... and all the next moon missions were always a
great 'television event' at my house....

Only much later did I learn that they only happened because of a goal set by
Democratic President John F. Kennedy
'to put a man on the moon within the next ten years'!

Too bad he did not live long enough to see it happen.

[Diraven]

33. Because it's not on social media

Yeah it's on the regular TV and print news but young people don't consume that hardly at all.

[pat_k]

34. If Elon had had his way, there would be no Artemis II mission

I remember reports last spring that Elon was going after the Space Launch System. Obviously, he didn't derail the planned mission, but I'm having difficulty nailing down the question of whether the overall program has/or has not, been undermined.

Obviously, he wants NASA to be completely reliant on SpaceX. I suspect substantial progress has been made toward that goal, but am not finding much information on what actually happened -- what cuts were made, what personnel was jettisoned.

[Bluetus]

37. All of the above is true, but all secondary issues

The main reason those students weren't aware is that they are not following the same media we are. Most of them get their "news" through social media now. If the algorithms are not funneling info about Artemis, then they may never know about it.

Many of us have talked about fundamental changes that are needed in order to restore us to a functioning level of democracy. Things such as rolling back Citizen's United, reforms of the Supreme Court, fighting the Jim Crow laws, etc. There is very little talk here (as opposed to Europe) about addressing the abuses of social media, particularly the ones driven by algorithms that drive rage and minimize facts because rage is more profitable to the platforms. It is a major problem.

[IronLionZion]

42. The Apollo missions happened while the USA was deep into the Vietnam War

interesting parallels these days. I find Artemis much more interesting than the Iran war. This mission is to fly by the moon. NASA claims they plan to land people on it in 2028.

Artemis II's objectives are comparable to those of Apollo 8, the first crewed lunar mission of the Apollo program, in 1968. Unlike Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 in 1969, which orbited the Moon without landing, Artemis II will not enter lunar orbit.[95] Instead, Artemis II will fly around the Moon on a free-return trajectory, like Apollo 13 in 1970. While Apollo 13 came to 158 miles (254 km) above the lunar surface, Artemis II's closest approach will be ~4,700 miles (7,600 km).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_II

[Johonny]

44. Trump has spent more time on his ballroom

Than his space program..

[Trueblue Texan]

45. My mom worked at NASA when I was a young girl and she would get positively emotional...

about the work, though she was nothing but a little gal who plotted points on graphs. But she gave that same respect for the science to me. Yet, I confess, except for what I’ve read on DU, I hardly knew about it myself. The reason is, there are too many other things capturing my attention. I am terrified for democracy and for all of civilization with this war going on. We’ve been to the moon. For all I know about the mission, it’s old news compared to the urgency of this war. But I am ashamed I have let myself be so distracted from such important things.

[eppur_se_muova]

46. Part of it is that Trmp was trying so hard to fuck over NASA and every other science program that people just didn't

talk about it. And of course he kept changing his mind -- we're going to the Moon -- we're going to Mars -- we're not going to the Moon -- we're building a Lunar Space Station -- we're not going to Mars -- we are going to the Moon -- we're building a Lunar Station on the Moon, not in lunar orbit -- so much random bloviation and waffling from Trmp that my own reaction -- and I grew up during the Apollo era with a father who worked for Teledyne Brown on NASA contracts and got family tickets to the Apollo 17 launch, so I try harder than most to keep up -- was "Oh, is that going to happen after all ? It wasn't cancelled or scheduled for Hitler's birthday or something nuts like that ?" Maybe people in NASA were just laying low in the hope that Trmp wouldn't notice they were still there and forget to attack them some more. Well, it looks like it worked.

(BTW, I grew up in Huntsville AL when von Braun was still at NASA there and the area is still full of aerospace employers. Any news out of NASA is covered by local news faithfully. But everyone was holding their collective breath, and waiting for the zombie to lurch past without noticing them, I believe.)

[róisín_dubh]

47. I'm an xennial

I saw Challenger explode in my classroom and a 9 year old. I generally struggle watching manned spacecraft take off, because what if.
That’s not the issue with your students. But one of my friends posted that the Artemis launch was triggering and I have to agree.
But wow. Going back to the moon. I have been fascinated by space since I was a kid, I hope we actually make it back to the surface in my lifetime!