May Artemis be the dawn of a better space age!
May Artemis be the dawn of a better space age!
Also: farewell to legendary science fiction master Greg Bear.
Greetings to all readers and subscribers, and special greetings to the paid subscribers!
Please scroll down for the main topics of this newsletter. But first:
I hosted an open Turing Church meeting on Saturday, November 19. I gave a talk on “More things in heaven and earth, Gods by any other name,” followed by a Q/A. The audio is published in the Turing Church podcast. The video is published in turingchurch.com and YouTube.
Future meetings will be announced here. See also the Turing Church meetings calendar.
The second Terasem Colloquium of this year will be held on December 14, via Zoom, from 10am ET to 1pm ET. December 14 will mark the 50th anniversary of the last day astronauts have been on the Moon. Speakers: Michelle Hanlon, Giuseppe Reibaldi, Marlène Michèle Losier, Adriano Autino, Keith Henson, Frank White.
You are invited! I look forward to seeing you on December 14!
I have been invited by my good friend Adriano Autino to support Space Renaissance International (SRI) with a short video. I have recorded the video with pleasure, and I encourage you to join SRI, donate to SRI, or sponsor SRI. Video and transcript here.
The December 2022 issue of Reason is gorgeous and entirely dedicated to spaceflight, with a consistent and refreshing libertarian perspective. This issue alone is worth the very reasonable price of a digital subscription to Reason. If you are looking for a great Christmas present for a friend (or for yourself), this could be it.
Legendary science fiction master Greg Bear, one of my favorite writers, is gone. Thank you, Greg, for giving me so many hours of wonder. We'll meet one day.
Everything Greg wrote is great, but these books are my favorites. Read them and you’ll find credible and inspiring pictures of our future on this planet and beyond, including our expansion to the Moon and into the solar system (see below).
I hope Greg went like this (source):
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
I hope to meet Greg face to face when I cross the bar.
NASA launched the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon on Nov. 16. Of course I watched the launch on NASA TV with rapture. I took these I-was-there selfies.
Mark Whittington, the author of “Why is America Going Back to the Moon” (2021), tweeted “For just a moment, I'm 12 years old again.” I replied “So am I. May the next few years be a space-themed Disney world.”
Of course, at our age one doesn’t recapture the ultra-confident enthusiasm of a 12 years old easily, or for long. But the important thing is that those who are 12 today feel enthusiastic and confident that the dawn of human space expansion will shine in their lifetime. We have been “orphans of Apollo,” but they will be part of a spacefaring civilization on its way to become multi-planetary.
Turing Church is a space religion. Space launches are our services. Great science fiction works - interpreted as powerful narratives that we want to make true - are our scriptures. Becoming an interstellar civilization is our destiny. Cosmic engineering is our eschatology, to be realized by means of ultra-advanced science and technology. Eventually, we’ll remake the universe and resurrect the dead. When you watch a space launch, think of it as a little step toward this final destination.
SpaceNews has republished my op-ed “SpaceX fans should stand behind NASA and support Artemis” online, a few hours before the launch of Artemis 1. The cover image is well chosen: may Artemis be the dawn of our expansion to the Moon and into the solar system! There’s a heated discussion in the comments, with passionate arguments and of course some name calling. But I welcome even name calling when it shows that people are really passionate about spaceflight, the return to the Moon, and our future in space.
The excerpt published on my SpaceNews profile page says: “This time we want to go to the moon and stay, sustainably and permanently. And then Mars. Apollo was a false start, but Artemis could be the real start.”
My other main point is that SpaceX fans should be patient: if the Artemis program is successful, the time for Starship will come.
Artemis 3 - the first Artemis mission to land astronauts on the surface of the moon - will use Starship as its lunar lander. And now, NASA has awarded SpaceX another contract to develop an upgraded version of its Starship lunar lander and fly a second crewed mission as part of Artemis 4.
So things are looking good for both NASA and SpaceX. I hope they’ll continue to work together without unnecessary friction, and open the way to the planets and the moons of our solar system together.
On Nov. 21, the Orion spacecraft came within 80 miles of the lunar surface, the closest approach of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, before moving into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.
Next time, with Artemis 2, Orion will carry astronauts to lunar orbit. And then, with Artemis 3, astronauts will land on the lunar surface. Go NASA GO! May Artemis be the dawn of a better space age!
A portion of the far side of the Moon looms large just beyond the Orion spacecraft in this image taken on the sixth day of the Artemis I mission by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays.