SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
MISSION CONTROL:
Jim, we’ ve got loads of information we will be going over. I’ m just going to record it so I don’ t miss anything, if that’ s ok.
DR. JIM RICE:
Yeah ….. and I warn you sometimes I talk too much, so just tell me to shut up if you need to.
Mission Control: [ Laughing ] That’ s what the recordings for Jim, so I don’ t have to tell you that. Now I have to ask you, is there any sort of competition / race between countries to get people to Mars?
Jim Rice: Not really, it’ s not really like it was in the 60’ s. I mean the Apollo program was part of the cold war and the NASA budget was about 41 / 2- 5 % of the Gross National Product at the time. Which is huge, now it’ s down in the weeds. It’ s nothing compared to what it used to be in the Apollo days. Fear is a great motivator. So it’ s not the same.
I mean those personalities: Kennedy, Khrushchev; the Cold War, all this stuff going on – space it’ s a frontier, just like another theater in the cold war and proving our freedom, democracy and our way of life and that our technology is better than what the Soviets had to offer back then.
So there’ s nothing out there. People try to talk about one [ the Space Race ] between the US and China. It’ s just not really panning out like that. I think that the Cold War was a unique point in history. It would be hard for that to roll around in the same form or fashion. There’ s not really a firm competition between countries to get to Mars right now. It could change, of course. You know, a space program is a showcase for your country’ s technology, so your political system can take pride. It can be used for propaganda purposes as well. So other nations are interested in that, but it’ s just not a race like it was in the‘ 60’ s – an all-out race. Like I said, things could change, but not right now. If it was a priority, we could have gone to mars a decade ago.
MISSION CONTROL:
So there’ s not a race to Mars? Then who will be the next country to go to the moon?
DR. JIM RICE:
The Chinese appear to be heading, in terms of astronauts, to the moon. I don’ t know when they will do that, they haven’ t really pinpointed a day or year yet, but it’ s probably going to happen around 2020 to 2025- somewhere in that window, I’ m guessing. It will be interesting when they do that because the United States, at least at this moment in time which we speak, have no plans to put a man on the surface of the moon either.
The Chinese, I’ ll use them because I think they will be the next nation, unless we get our game together over here, they’ ll be the next nation to put people on the moon. For most people in the world, its kind-of going to be like the first time. I did some numbers the other day. Out of the world’ s population today 75 % of the world population were either too young to remember or weren’ t born yet when we landed on the moon. If the Chinese do put people on the surface of the moon, for most people in the world, it’ s going to be like the first time. Apollo will be 50, 50 + years ago when it happened.
Europeans are talking about a moon or lunar village type thing. There’ s a lot of countries talking about the moon and the US kind-of isn’ t right now, but you know that could change and I just wonder that if the Chinese do put people on the surface of the moon, what that will be like?
You can imagine the technology being HD video, or whatever it’ s called then, and Chinese astronauts are going to be tweeting, or whatever it’ s going to be called then, from the surface of the moon, it’ s going to be different. And my question I have is for the United States is: What is it going to do to the population of the United States? Are they going to shrug their shoulders and go, mmm that’ s cool ….. we did it 50 years ago? Is it going to get people to say we should be doing these types of things again?
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1961 Magazine Fall 2016