Howdy,
You’d have to be living totally off the grid not to have caught wind of all the hoopla surrounding the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Pretty damn cool, if you ask me. It reminds you that humankind can do great things when we set our minds to it and work together. Having a bit of friendly competition ( or even unfriendly, I suppose) with a rival helps out too. Now, I know some people don’t like the idea of sending humans to Mars or back to the moon. Too expensive. We have problems here at home, etc., etc. I felt that way also, at least to a certain extent, before I read Endurance by Scott Kelly. The technological and engineering breakthroughs our missions into space have brought us are well worth the expense. Hell, maybe putting a human on Mars will require some piece of technology that will somehow reverse global warming. Pipedream? Probably. Impossible? Not at all.
Anyway, I took my boys to the IMAX to watch CNN Films’ documentary Apollo 11 after hearing on the news that when asked, most young people say they would rather be a YouTuber than an astronaut. I mean, what the hell?! Give me a break! If you’re an astronaut, you’ll be all over YouTube. I hoped the film would inspire them. I think it did. They were impressed. The younger one still wants to be a firefighter, but he is now well aware that rockets make an impressive amount of fire. The older one still wants to be a professional soccer player followed by a career in teaching middle school students. Not bad. They aren’t telling me they want to be YouTubers, which I think is a good thing.
Now, I’ve read that science fiction inspired the missions to the moon. Having penned a bit of spec fic myself, I like to think there is a glimmer of truth in that.