An early, but still vivid, formative memory of mine was watching the noisy, black & white video of the Apollo 11 mission. It was partly responsible for my enduring sense of awe and possibility, and probably the moment I knew I had to be a scientist or engineer.
Our world is going to hell in many ways, to be sure, but we're going to the moon again today, and I can't help but get excited about that.
@mattblaze Sadly, I am the opposite. I followed the space missions from Gemini 5 to Apollo 17. I got up in the middle of the night to see the first moonwalk broadcast live. I wanted to be a physicist (until an actual physicist talked me out of it).
I now think it was a deliberate diversion from issues closer to home, and a colossal waste of time and money. And it's the last thing we need right now. I'm not arguing with you. We just don't align on this one.
Matt Blaze
Prabhakar Ragde