We used to control the lightning

Yesterday NASA successfully landed the rover Curiosity on Mars. While an enormous technical achievement, for me it's a bitter reminder of what the US space program used to be.

NASA was created in 1958 by an act of Congress, replacing the forgettable National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA). NASA quickly began working on the X-plane missions, developing the equipment and techniques that would be used to build the rockets to take men into space. Development on the Mercury missions began in 1959, followed by the Gemini missions in 1965 and the Apollo missions that culminated in the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. It was followed by five other successful lunar missions, and one failure, Apollo 13.

After success of the Apollo missions, President Nixon was given a choice. One, we could declare victory and abandon the US manned space program. Two, we could begin planning and preparing for more extensive moon missions with the ultimate goal of a permanent manned base on the moon. Or three, we could begin work on a cost effective way to begin hauling men and material into space with the near term goal of building up the US's manned orbital infrastructure. He chose to focus on the last option, which morphed into Skylab and the Space Shuttle program.

We learned a huge amount from both Skylab and the Shuttle missions. We learned how to live and work in space. We mastered orbital repairs, learned enormous amounts about the effect of space flight and travel on humans. We relearned the safety culture and quality control lessons we first learned in Apollo 1. But we did nothing to advance the manned exploration of the stars.

In 1969 America placed two men on the moon.  In 2012 America cannot even place a man in orbit.

The first successful Mars landing was Viking 1, in 1975. Think about that. We spent most of yesterday congratulating ourselves for the exact same accomplishment we first accomplished in 1975.

Don't get me wrong, it is a huge technical accomplishment, NASA has every right to be proud of this success. A quick look at the history of Mars missions shows just how hard launching an object from Earth, transiting to Mars and landing successfully is. In addition, this Mars landing was technically much harder than any other landing we've attempted before.

But it does nothing to advance our exploration of the stars.

The title of this post comes from Larry Niven's book Lucifer's Hammer. In the book, a comet smashes into Earth, killing most of humanity and reducing the survivors to anarchic chaos. One small group, however, is faced with a  choice. They have carved out a stronghold they can live, farm and survive in. They have defended it from marauding armies of cannibals and barbarians. They have survived the end of the world.

But they are faced with a choice. Ten miles away is one of the last functioning nuclear power plants, still manned by many of its technicians and operators. If they do not act, it will be destroyed by a group of crazy, anti-technology barbarians. They will survive, but at a preindustrial level. If they act, some of them will die. They will have to spend time and lives hunting down the barbarians, and actively patrolling around the power plant to protect it. But they will have a perpetual source of electrical power to rebuild civilization.

One of the main characters lays out the choice for them in stark terms. Humanity used to control the lightning, he says. If they defend the power plant, in a decade they may be able to do it again. But if they allow the plant to be destroyed, their children and their grandchildren and their grandchildren's grandchildren will cower under their beds at night wondering why the lightning gods are angry at them. It's a choice between advancing the cause of humanity, or being content to live as you are.

We are faced with that same choice today. We, as Americans, can continue to exist as we do today, or we can advance the cause of humanity by expanding to explore the stars. Right now we are choosing to cower under our beds, content with what we have.

In the 1400 and 1500's Western civilizations chose to explore new oceans and continents while other, just as capable civilizations chose to stay within the bounds of their safe villages and known maps. The history of Western civilization from 1450 to modern days is one of unrivaled advances in culture, technology and knowledge. There were more technical achievements by western scientists and technicians in the 1900's than in all of human history before it. The history of Eastern and Middle Eastern civilizations since 1450 is one of cultural and technical stagnation. Even today, with exceptions for India, virtually all of the technical advances we see come from Westerners, and many of them can be directly linked back to the US space program.

Pushing the boundaries of known territory and bravely moving into uncharted areas forces civilizations to advance technologically and culturally. Civilizations are like sharks. You either keep moving forward or you die. Civilizations that choose to remain where it is safe and known stagnate and are eventually replaced by others.

Pushing the boundaries of known territory, and moving bravely into uncharted areas is difficult, dangerous and terrifying. The US has suffered 24 deaths directly attributable to our space program. The Soviets suffered hundreds. If we continue to explore, we will suffer more. That is the price of advancing.

As President Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."