re: The deafening silence of the USA returning to the moon

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Not to pick on you, because the Artemis launch was really cool.....gave me chills. But everyone here is so caught up in politics, that something non political like this isn't sexy. I may be wrong but you might be the first poster to bring it up.....anything about Artemis.

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WTF are you doing sounding rational?

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The deafening silence of the USA returning to the moon

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In space, no one can hear you cheer.

I have seen very widespread coverage and interest in this. If you can’t see the interest and coverage, you are not looking.

Our education system deserves a great share of blame.

I doubt there is even the barest plurality of Americans under 60 (and certainly a infinitesimal tranche of illegals) that even know what the Apollo program was, when it existed, or what it accomplished…

But did NASA really have humans on that rocket? I'm not buying the product. Even if they show a few people in a cockpit, where is exactly is the cockpit? Could that be in a studio tucked away somewhere deep in the NASA basement.

Is it worth thinking considering that part of the apathy towards this is that Elon has make rocket launches to be perceived as “safe” and an everyday activity and so the launch of any system isn’t a monumentous occasion and instead the curiosity will begin as we reach closer to the moon?

As an example there were 35 total manned and unmanned Apollo missions and another 32 test launches between 1960-1972. Space X has had 177 launches in the last 12 months.

I wasn't too fired up about it, tbh. I know that in theory this trip is the start of a proof of concept or proving ground toward a future human-crewed Mars trip in the 2030s, but I think that's a little deceptive.

None of the known propulsion tech we have is capable of getting Artemis to Mars with a human crew. As I understand it, the trip would take almost a year, one-way, and the vessel can't haul enough supplies for the humans to survive even that first leg of the journey. So we are a long, long way and billions of dollars from a human mission to Mars.

I'm good with sending robots for continued exploration of Mars and beyond until propulsion tech catches up. Just think of what the robots will be able to do in 10 years.

But repeatedly going to the moon seems like a silly waste of money to me.

I'd rather them skip the moon selfies and lower my taxes. (I know, I know.)

My entire family watched it yesterday.

Neither of the kids had one teacher bring it up, which I found very depressing.

My wife and 3 kids all watched the launch, I watch nearly all launches and get choked up every time. The achievement of man to space sitting on a rocket of fire is just too much for me.

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I was a little kid when man first went to the moon, but I can remember quite vividly how much news coverage was devoted to it well prior to, during, and afterward, as well as the subsequent return trips, and this with only three stations and a single newspaper to go on. The difference is quite remarkable, especially considering this is a precursor to a trip to Mars, and we are venturing further in space than man has ever been to.

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I can understand the diff in coverage from the 60's to now.
1. Space travel was new and none of this had been done before
2. The country was in a cold war with USSR and the space race was front and center in the minds of Americans
3. Now, space travel is not new, there is no competition for space achievements

There is some excitement out there. My 6th grade daughter watched it and was interested. She had gone on a school trip to NASA and she enjoyed that. So her interest was peaked.

The excitement can never be replicated like it was in the 60's. But I will agree with your sentiment that a bigger deal needs to be made about it. Because of the complexity, no room for error, and danger that we all take for granted because we've seen so many launches of stuff. Just look at the success and failures of SpaceX and Blue Origin in trying ot do things differently.

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It's like people just look for any reason to complain about things.

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You're just now realizing that?