Artemis pros and cons

[misanthrope]

We were due to meet friends for dinner at 7 p.m. CT and everyone agreed to hold off another 15 minutes or so to watch the scheduled splashdown. The return to Earth turned out optimal and it was a relief.

We arrived before our dining companions and noted all the TVs in the restaurant were trained to Artemis coverage, away from their usual sports. One server, a young lady in her 20s spoke of how everyone there was riveted to the screens and how nervous she had been. It occurred to me that I automatically compared it to all the space program's splashdowns and landings I had seen over the course of my life, then realized she didn't have the same comparison. Her parents might not have been born yet the last time the lunar program was up and running.

Then I considered how we have crews travel beyond the atmosphere and return all the time. The International Space Station has been continually inhabited for a quarter century now. Little of that gets this same kind of media attention.

I didn't want to tell that young server that her current tension and excitement is likely to fade soon. It happened in the early 1970s, when the public quickly became inured to regular moon missions. It happened with the space shuttle program, even though a pair of tragedies reminded all of us how risky it still remained. It has happened with ISS.

So many people were eager to squeal on social media tonight that they "love science," but do they really? Do they really crave science news? Do they know what the scientific method is and how it works? Do they approach their lives in an evidence-based fashion, or exercise rational skepticism? Are they possessed of a eternal curiosity about how things work, or why the universe behaves the way it does? Or are they simply entertained by high-profile, science-related stories played up for dramatic effect?

Sadly, evidence provided by the way Americans lead their lives, by the choices they make, would say it is more likely the last of those questions posed.

Still though, if the media keeps the fervor for lunar exploration stoked until Artemis IV in 2028, it could play into Mark Kelly's favor should he run for POTUS. It is going to be very hard for doddering Donnie and thoroughly unlikeable Vance to look better than a sure-enough fighter pilot and astronaut if public sentiment is swinging back in the direction of NASA friendliness.