The Wikipedia article was good—explained that while many thought it was a joke many others took it very seriously.
When I was a teenager I was into science fiction and science—and I was absolutely convinced that I would be spending my senior years vacationing on the Moon and Mars and maybe beyond.
I never considered it a “joke” for one minute.
My negative even hostile attitude towards NASA reflects the gap between my expectations and the current reality.
When Musk figures it’s worth going to the moon for business reasons, I’ll be a believer.
Until then, sci-fi freaks who want the government to spend my money can pound sand.
My negative even hostile attitude towards NASA reflects the gap between my expectations and the current reality.
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Then your hostility is misplaced - NASA was a 2nd thought; it was never the dream, but a fake out. Originally, it was Project Orion which would have taken us to Mars by 1968 and Saturn by 1972, while building an interstellar ship to take us to the stars.
However, the lack of political will, infighting by various DOD groups, and cowardly politicians ended the program in 1964. The same group also brought us the screwed up side-mounted Space Shuttle.
Currently the idiot talk show host now in charge of NASA plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Moon by 2030 - however, its an open question if there will be any US means of getting there by that date, let alone landing a man or building anything on the Moon.
What it all is is a way to keep people happy and upbeat on manned space while denying the means to go there in any meaningful way. Politicians simply do not trust that they will be able to maintain power across such distances. So until they find a way for politicians on Earth to be satisfied they can maintain the same absolute control on the Moon, its not happening - at least not by the US as the history of space exploration by by US has show us.
Only robotic missions are acceptable to politicians because they can control the data - can pick and chose which data to allow us to see and which data they do not:
The famous examples of withholding/erasing data is the Mars mission that found a fossil organism, then proceeded to grind it of to see what was below it;
Or the carefully calibrated color monitor for the first images from Mars, which when received - in full view of a room full of reporters - showed a blue sky and green lichen/moss. The man in charge of the project immediately turned the color gain up producing the familiar red and black of the Mars we are permitted to see;
Then there was the 1976 Viking Martian lander which tested for life - the first and last time that experiment was ever done because the “evidence was inconclusive” - a catch phrase to throw skepticism and doubt on something, while providing a reason never to repeat it.
What they do not want us to see about the Moon - well, it would require a scholarly dissertation to complete - starting with the room full of Apollo images and data that was thrown out to make room for more modern data.
My2cents