Waking Up the Man on the Moon

Well, we all thought it would be a Hollywood-type show. Watch the rocket crash into the crater from the next rocket following along behind. A big plume of debris, lots of something.

Then nothing. Some nice close-up views for a little bit.

Then nothing.

NASA tells us they got lots of good data. But we are still waiting for pictures of it.

But as I watched yesterday morning, live, on NASA TV, I had to say I was still awed by how good the picture was. It could have been from a TV feed down the street. Quite a change from the pictures 40 years ago of Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon. Now we get upset because we don't get a big picture show.

I was surprised, though I shouldn't have been, by reactions to the whole thing by some friends. They thought the whole thing was stupid. Why waste all that money to crash the moon? Why not use the money for here on earth? Think of all the better ways the money could have been used.

There is truth in that of course. But that has been true of any major scientific exploration. How many poor people could have better benefited from what was spent on Columbus' trip, for example? There is a certain inherent value in scientific exploration, though, that can't be measured in any monetary ways when in the midst of them. There are hours, years, money and money spent before anything useful can be done with the information.

On a basic scientific level, then, the search for water on the moon is good. It advances knowledge. People can be helped with what was spent, yes, just as they could have with the Hubble Telescope costs. The advances and information's uses may not be seen for years, but in and of itself, it is worth knowing.

In addition, I am sure, absolutely sure, that there are a lot of things we spend money on- extravagant amounts of money- that could easily be transformed into other areas and we would never miss it. All we have to do is take a brief moment of altruism and utilize it. All of us who buy sports tickets for this weekend- football, baseball, etc- give a dollar to help end poverty. All of those multi-multi-millionaires who we give our money to for us to be entertained (sports stars, TV stars, movie stars, sports team owners, to name four groups) could catch some of the serious altruism of a Bill Gates.

Yes, I am a dreamer. Perhaps it is as likely as to find the man on the moon stretching awake yesterday morning.

But why not at least hope for some of it to happen.