Sfdebris.net

Fifty Years ago...



Makes me sad to think about it because I'm afraid my generation will never get to see a day like that.

Apollo was a great achievement and milestone in mankind's history, but it won't be the last one. Hell, it wasn't even the last one in the last fifty years; in many ways, it is even more impressive that we live in an age where we encounter small miracles so often that we take them for granted.

Independent George wrote: ↑Sat Jul 27, 2019 11:21 pm Apollo was a great achievement and milestone in mankind's history, but it won't be the last one. Hell, it wasn't even the last one in the last fifty years; in many ways, it is even more impressive that we live in an age where we encounter small miracles so often that we take them for granted.

Pretty much this. We may not live on the moon or have visited Mars in person, but we did the next best thing via a robotic drone, while also landing on a comet and making photographs of the surface. Meanwhile back on Earth, we managed to develop technologies that allow us to literally contact pretty much everyone almost everywhere without any sort of delay, while at the same time having complete access to pretty much everything humanity has ever written and recorded, even in bumfuck nowhere (though you may not be able to livestream 4k YouTube vids on the top of the Himalayas reliably yet, while freezing to death).

Take that, Ruskies.

Meanwhile, Voyager 1 and 2 have entered interstellar space and are still operational (though no longer transmitting images.

There's been no word yet on whether or not they've merged with an alien intelligence and are making their way back home.

That'll never work.

We still got nukes if those Voyage twins come back merged with some weird alien ai but evil. As much as extra-terrestrial intelligence is with ai, our world has enough evil god-like entities...and Janeway since we still monitor her on the moon with her chained to the moons core.

Speaking of interesting little miracles, in 1974 we sent a message into space announcing our presence that is now 45 light years away. Voyager has not even made it 1.
And the fun part? There is an Earth type planet 40 light years away. True, the transmission is going the wrong way but it does make you think. If we can transmit those distances, then so can they if there is a race on that planet with a 1975 level of technology or higher.

I think one of the things that bothers me most is that I will be dead long before we are truly venturing out into space.

Sigh. Too young to explore the Earth, too old to explore the universe.