Firstly, as a child of the Apollo Era it has seemed increasingly strange to me that lunar landings have become a part of the nostalgia industry. In fact, with the youngest of the lunar astronauts approaching the average American male life expectancy, I have sometimes asked friends, "do you realise we will probably live to see the funeral of the last man to walk on the moon?"
Secondly, I was inspired by the end of the Magellan Probe expedition to Jupiter, and told people, "I wish America would do more stuff like that just for the heck of it. That's the sort of stuff I used to admire them for."
Lastly, there is a tradition in my family, that children who don't eat their dinner are brought to heel with the terrifying threat, "I'll give it to the cat!"
It always bugged me why they thought this would work, since my usual reason for not eating something was that I wasn't hungry, or that it was horrible, and therefore as far as I was concerned the cat was welcome to it. Maybe that's why my mum eventually started using this tactic on the dogs.
My border collie, Zaphod (who lived with my folks) was famous for ignoring his dinner. The inducement "I'll give it to the cat" (or Yaeger, or Zari, or the zombie lodger) would often work though. Mum would push the bowl over towards someone else, and Zaphod would pounce on it and devour it, scowling over the rim at the potential rival. Incidentally this seems to work just as well from cats to dogs.
A month or so ago China shot their first man into space, and shortly after, declared that they intended to put a man on the moon within 10 or 20 years. At the time, I remarked "I wonder if this will get the Americans interested again", not really expecting the prophecy to come true.
Perhaps I should have taken myself more seriously. After all, we all know the 60's space program was mainly to do with politics and paranoia, and once the USA had planted the flag, and trundled around collecting rocks a few times, the rug was pulled from under NASA's budget, and the public, and the scientist, who had invested genuine, apolitical idealism in the thing, were left just with memories.
So anyway, from CNN, this week:.
Aides to U.S. President George W. Bush say he is on the verge of calling for a return to the moon as part of a dramatic new mission for NASA.
Sources tell CNN the target for returning to the moon is about 15 years from now.
You don't want it? I'll give it to the Chinese!
I can't even begin to imagine the money the government will need to throw at this project to make it work - and this a week after exasperated Republican John Mc Cain said "Congress is now spending money like a drunken sailor. And I've never known a sailor drunk or sober with the imagination that this Congress has."
Don't get me wrong. I'd love to see someone back on the moon, American, Chinese or Fijian, and if this is what it takes, fair enough. It might even have the effect (this is a laugh, but still) that Congress decides, "Look, George, we'll have to put Empire Building on hold while we do this moon thing. We can't afford both."
(c) dec 2003, Tim Gadd, originally from Tim Gadd's 13 Albanian Foxes