It’s July 20th, the 37th anniversary of the first time human beings walked on the moon. My opinion that this day ought to be made a national holiday has not yet found any support from the Powers That Be, and, poking around the Interweb today, I’m disappointed to see so little discussion about the anniversary or human spaceflight in general. I did find one op-ed by Buzz Aldrin, who was at Tranquility Base with Neil Armstrong when he took his small step, and Rick N. Tumlinson, the founder of an organization called the Space Frontier Foundation. Their sentiments will no doubt sound corny to some, but they appeal to the idealistic core I keep hidden under my cynical exterior:

Anointed as those with the “right stuff,” [the Apollo astronauts] were just normal people who worked through their fields to find themselves in the right place and time to be given a chance to change history. They were heroes because they did what they did not for money or personal power, but to fulfill a dream, to do the impossible simply because it was “impossible.”

 

…Unified under the banner of the quest, their fellowship took them, and us, to a place unknown, and opened up for us a new idea, that this tiny world of ours is not the only one upon which we can stand, and that we, as humans, can do incredible things in the name of a dream.

 

In this time of darkness, of rivalries between faiths and ideals, it is time again for heroes who touch us all, no matter who we are, what we worship, and where we live on this oh so tiny planet. It is time for this great nation to embark on a new quest, to show the world and ourselves that we are not the greedy, self-aggrandizing gluttons and bullies so many believe us to be. Just as our landing on the Moon was “for all mankind,” we need to throw open the gates to space for all humanity. Anyone can fight wars; instead the US should focus on doing those things no other nation can accomplish, by leading a new coalition of governments and private companies onto the frontier and establishing a new branch of humanity beyond the Earth.

I suppose this is a good place to note that one of those private companies Buzz and Rick are referring to, Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, did something pretty remarkable this week by successfully launching and deploying its Genesis I module, a prototype for — get this — an inflatable space station that the company (which is owned by Robert T. Bigelow, the gazillionaire founder of the Budget Suites hotel chain here on Earth) hopes to orbit as soon as 2012. This article contains some details. I like seeing things like this, as it’s increasingly looking like our best chance of really accomplishing something in space is going to come from wealthy dreamers like Bigelow and not NASA. Is an inflatable station practical? I have no idea… but at least someone is trying out new ideas and pushing to get us back out into the black. Go Bigelow!