With my Countdown to the Moon project, I interview people where ever I am. I was taking tennis lessons on Saturdays last year. Sammy was the owner of the tennis club.
The basic theme from the interview was “Why are we going?” “Surely there is some benefit.”
And this is the key thing that we have got to answer. While the benefits seem certain in space people’s minds, they are theoretical to everyone else. But the costs are very, very real.
“IN 2024 we are going to land the first woman and the next man” misses the mark in terms of that long term driver.
What do we really hope to get from the moon?
Find out what is truly there. But do you need humans to do that? Why not just send robots. Well, robots will not be able to fully appreciate nor transmit what is on the moon. They are great surgical instruments that can look for particular things. But I think humans will be able to sense and explore in ways that we can do through machines. But is that true? How to convince people of it? How to show the value?
There are many reasons to go to the moon if you think humanity should go further. There are resources on the moon that we can use to enable deeper exploration. But if it does not make sense sending people into space in the first place, these reasons will not appeal to you.
We need a solid story on “Why”.