Orphans of Apollo - Prologue
Origins
From the ashes of forgotten space dreams, a new era of exploration begins.
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Lana’s grandfather was an orphan. He did not lose his parents at an early age, but he was an orphan none the less. He was an orphan of Apollo. A generation whose hopes and dreams were built up, only to be dashed in politicking, short-sightedness, misunderstanding and indecision. Lana’s grandparents were that generation who came of age during the height of the Apollo era, humanity’s greatest achievement to date. They could be forgiven for feeling let down and disappointed.
On 12th September 1962, President John F Kennedy delivered his infamous speech at Rice University in Houston Texas, the most quoted line of which being:
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,”
This was the year Lana’s grandfather was born. Seven years later, crammed into a neighbours living room, he watched a grainy black and white television picture of Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the Luna surface. When Kennedy made his speech, the United States had completed a total of four manned space-flights, only two of which were orbital. During the short life of the little boy, the United States had gone from floundering in the shadow of the Soviet Union to landing a man on the Moon. The programme gripped him, as it did many. Space was all the young boy could think about. This was the future of humanity. This was what he was going to do with his life, and there was plenty to be done. We would have a moon base by the 1980s, fly to Mars in the 1990s and maybe even venture beyond the asteroid belt in the early part of the 21st century. Hopes were high. He wanted to be an astronaut, of course, which little boy did not. However, he was smart enough to know there was a lot more to space than being an astronaut and if he could not become one, he would be involved in some other way, as an engineer or a scientist. This was going to be exciting. Better knuckle down and get some good grades in Math and Science. And that’s just what he did.
Alas, it was not to be.
By 1971 Apollo missions were already being cancelled and the programme concluded in 1972 after six successful lunar landings and one successful failure.
What followed was the Space Shuttle, the child of a marriage of convenience between NASA and the United States Air Force. All but abandoned by one of its parents before birth, it therefore never lived up to its potential. The shuttle did achieve some great things: construction of the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope deployment (along with its associated servicing missions) were arguably the greatest achievements. However, the launch cadence achieved was nowhere near that expected during the design phase, resulting in astronomical costs compared to what was promised. Two avoidable tragedies did not help and although the programme received several stays of execution, with the ISS complete, the Shuttle flew its final mission in 2011.
The Shuttle was retired on the pretence that NASA could free up funds for exploration missions deeper into space. The Shuttle being limited to low Earth orbit. A noble goal but one that suffered greatly at the whims of politicians, very few of which understand space and space exploration. The resulting flip flop between return to the Moon, capture an asteroid, Mars, no back to the moon, Lunar Space Station etc squandered billions of dollars and countless research and development hours.
When humanity finally returned to the Moon in 2034, Lana’s grandfather was seventy-two and Lana had just come into this world. Throughout his life, he had maintained his interest in all things astronomical and especially the idea that one day humanity would colonise the solar system and beyond. This interest had, as is often the case, rubbed off on his children. Now, with the birth of his first grandchild, the promise seemed real this time. Humans were about to have their first outpost on another world - over seventy years since they first visited it - but at least progress was now being made. There were even plans for a mission to orbit Mars, taking humans beyond cislunar space for the first time.
Progress in space was not without its detractors however. Some believed there were enough problems here on Earth to solve and we should not be wasting our effort on space exploration. Whilst most people accepted both were important, as with every idea, there are always those who take a radical interpretation.
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