Beyond ho-hum: Finding excitement in today’s space advances
I don’t like to constantly revisit “the olden days” of my youth as if they were some halcyon time of simpler pleasures and more meaningful excitements. But there are times when comparisons just can’t be avoided.
One now involves the Artemis II space flight, which despite taking humans farther from Earth than they’ve ever been and showing images from the moon we’ve never seen before — and more vividly at that -, seems to be raising little more than some raised eyebrows and respectful shrugs among the general population.
My space-related memories provide some informative context. In my grade-school days, it was a welcome delight when the janitors rolled a bulky black-and-white television into combined classrooms so we children could ooh and ahh at news coverage of John Glenn or Alan Shepard being shot into space. Every step along the way to our expected journey to the moon was cause for awe and reflection — not to mention reinforcement of our need to beat those commies from Russia in the race.
Then, we made it. Neil Armstrong made his famous small step/giant leap and it seemed everyone in America was watching. And not just America, the whole world. Every radio and television channel carried the events live. The scratchy audio and blurry black-and-white images were the source of every conversation for days.
There were fewer than 500 people watching NASA’s Artemis 2 Live broadcast on YouTube when I tuned in just now. A network YouTube report had only a few thousands views. The broadcasters describe events in excited tones, and print coverage offers some stunning pictures and vivid narratives. Yet, even so, a muted enthusiasm seems to overlay all the reporting.
It’s not that we’re bored with it. We just don’t seem to be that surprised anymore. The International Space Station has been continuously inhabited for more than 25 years, and no one perhaps outside of NASA seems to have marked the anniversary. Our grade schoolers can now watch the events of Artemis II on the palm-sized rectangle they carry everywhere, if they care to pull themselves away from Tik Tok long enough to check them out.
How many astronauts from the past decade can any American name?
This is not to say our space heroes aren’t heroes anymore. Of course, they are. And the technological and scientific achievements enabling their explorations are wonders of stunning insight, research and determination. It cannot be said that we have conquered the final frontier. Truth be told, there will be dramatic breakthroughs and breathtaking accomplishments aplenty for our children’s children’s children — and likely frontiers we cannot even imagine today.
And even these will become everyday wallpaper in the lives of future generations.
NASA’s Artemis program, let us remember, will have its own further opportunities for dramatic achievements. Named for the twin sister of the Greek god Apollo — namesake of those ‘60s and ‘70s lunar missions — Artemis is expected one day to take the first woman to the moon. And perhaps, it and succeeding programs will lead to new discoveries and unpredictable resources that enrich the lives and stir the spirits of humankind. Surely when Elon Musk walks on Mars — as is his dream and who would bet against him? — we will have other lunar moments.
For now, it is enough to realize we live in a more complicated world than that of our early youth, and it takes more and different events to fire our excitements. Such an observation puts the coverage of scientific exploration in a new context, one stirring not because it is new but because of what it shows about what we are doing with what we are learning. That may be a subtler form of excitement, but it is no less uplifting in the long run.
• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His book “To Nudge The World” has been named a Book of the Year by the Chicago Writers Association and is available at eckhartzpress.com.