Countdown to the Moon

Karastin had heard about NASA’s 2024 plan to land people on the moon. She is a geologist and is excited to see it happen.

“Did you know there is ice on the poles of the moon?”

“I didn’t!”

“The moon has a 1 degree tilt relative to the sun, and it has deep craters on the moon that have permanently shadowed areas that are colder than Pluto. Over billions of years comets and wet meteors have impacted the moon and water molecules have ended up in these regions and have been trapped.”

“Wow! I can’t believe I didn’t know that.”

“Well I don’t know who is playing in the super bowl, so we all have our own blind spots”

Within 1799 days we will have people walk on the moon again. And we will learn more about the water ice and how to extract it to help in our exploration efforts.

“We need to work on developing the character of humanity”. There are 1800 days between now and the end of 2024 by which time NASA has set the goal of landing people on the moon again. I talked to Rama about it. He thinks that we need to develop our character as a society. We should learn to get along with each other and to respect each other. “Technology has given us great capability but we have not developed enough to use it wisely”

Rama asked me what I thought was the best thing that space has given to us. For me it would be “perspective”. We are a mere speck in the cosmos. The universe does not revolve around the earth. Rather the earth is just one of billions of worlds.

Also, the world is not naturally divided between nations. It all flows together. We should work on making life better for all humanity.

Within 1801 days NASA will have people on the moon again. I talked to Orze today about that. Like 90% of the people I have interviewed, he had not heard about it. This is amazing considering that we live in Houston (literally the first word said from the moon during the Apollo program). NASA needs to do more to get the word out.

Orze is excited to see us going back. He would go if he could. He thinks it would be a great experience. He also thinks that it will have positive benefits here on earth.

I talk about the moon a lot! Last night I went to a lecture at Rice University by David Kring, Ph.D., Senior Staff Scientist at Lunar and Planetary Institute. There is so much we learned by the few rocks that the Apollo astronauts brought back. There is so much more we have to learn.

The permanently shaded areas (PSAs) are colder than the surface of Pluto. They have captured ices from comet and wet meteor impacts for billions of years. You have heard about the water ice. But last night I learned there should be many other ices. CO2 and NH4. We can grow plants and make methane on the moon! And there are so many different areas that we have not explored.

I talked to Christa about us going to the moon. As my sister, she has heard me talk about our trip to the moon many times. I think she will be excited to see it actually happen. She would go if she could. So would I. Ad Luna!

NASA needs to figure out how to get its plans to land on the moon in the news. Not many people outside of the space community know about it. I talked to Rebekah, Destiny, and Devonte about it and it was the first they heard about it. They are excited, and would go if they could. They think we need to get out there and explore.

Ritu and I talked about the benefits of this project. I work from home and can easily go for a while only interacting with the people at my house. Today was one of those days. It wasn’t supposed to be. I had a flying lesson scheduled and a tennis social. Both were cancelled because of the weather.

Ritu has heard about NASA’s plans to land people on the moon in 2024 from me. She thinks it is a good thing. She would go if it was economical. She is not sure if humanity will be beyond earth in 500 years. It seems like science fiction now, but air travel, the iPhone, and many of the things we use everyday once were unimaginable.

Hyunmee had heard about NASA’s plans to go to the moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis program. She was reading about the Korean American that was part of the 13 astronauts that had graduated the Friday before last. She thinks it is good that we are going and exploring. She is a geologist and thinks it would be good if we did send a geologist but at the same time it is not necessary if the astronauts can bring back many rocks. She would go to the moon if it was possible.

Franz supports everything that NASA does. But he had not heard about the plans to send people back to the moon in 2024. NASA needs to advertise more for him to know about it. Franz has heard about that group that was sending people to Mars, and he would go to the moon or to Mars if that was an option.

On the day of SpaceX’s successful in flight abort test of the Crewed Dragon, we are closer to getting astronauts launched from American soil on American rockets. And we are another day closer to NASA’s goal of getting people on the moon by 2024.

Today I talked with Meena. She had heard about NASA’s plans and thinks it is a good thing. She remembers when the first people walked on the moon in 2024.