In 414 BC, Aristophanes’ The Birds was first performed in Athens. In this comedy, two disgruntled middle-aged men, fed up with life on Earth, convince a giant bird to create a great city in the sky. Free from the cruel tyranny of the Olympian gods, mankind could achieve true fulfilment in this avian paradise. Out of this came the expression “cloudcuckoo land”, used to describe an idea completely divorced from reality. It reminds me of two other disgruntled middle-aged men — Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk — and their fantasies of celestial utopia.
I’m a space sceptic — rockets don’t move me. Back in 2006, I explored the seedier side of America’s lunar mission in my book, Dark Side of the Moon. It sparked outrage among those space enthusiasts who still cling desperately to Nasa’s glorious myths. And so I concluded that the world is roughly divided into two groups: there are those who care passionately about space and those who don’t give a fig. Men are prominent in the first group, women in the second. Go figure.
Being a space sceptic is a niche profession. This means that my phone rings whenever something important happens in space. Thanks to Musk, it’s been ringing a lot lately. And with the sixth launch of his Starship rocket yesterday, it’ll continue to do so. I care about space — in the sense that I believe that the dangerous fantasies of space moguls need to be exposed. And I still adore the old astronauts like John Glenn, Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong, all enormously brave men. But I recognise that they were mere pawns in a pointless political battle.
The recent exploits of Musk and Bezos fit into a longer story about celestial utopia. In 1869, Edward Hale published The Brick Moon, a short novel about a massive brick spaceship that is conceived as a navigational aid for those on earth. But a harmonious community, distinct from anything earthbound, quickly evolves within. Gravity was a cruel tyrant that prevented man from achieving true spiritual enlightenment.
President Ulysses Grant called the Brick Moon “the biggest thing since Creation, save for the invention of Bourbon whiskey and the Havana Cigar”. He was probably joking. Exactly 100 years later, President Richard Nixon described the Apollo 11 mission as “the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation”. He wasn’t joking. Mature, otherwise intelligent men genuinely believed that Armstrong’s small step was a “giant leap for mankind”. Armstrong himself expressed surprise that the lunar landing didn’t immediately bring the Vietnam War to an end.
According to this gospel of space, if man escaped Earth’s surly clutch, his soul would likewise soar. Earth was, some said, a “lousy planet”, a drag on human fulfilment. The idea was eventually taken up by physicist Gerard O’Neill who in 1981 predicted that a giant community orbiting in space would usher in an age of “perpetual plenty”, eradicating war, famine and poverty. Nasa paid him a large amount of money just to dream of utopia.
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SubscribeThe space agenisnt about the inhabiting space. It isn’t about terraforming Mars. It is about exploring the unknown it is about ascending man kinds spirit to be more to escape the tawdry mundanity of waking up at 9 dinner at 7 and football on the weekends.
It’s a reminder of the man’s eternal soul that longs to return home among the more exalted spheres from whence we came and to become and be more.
One might as w ll be against great art or music, space is an end in itself.
Plus, the technological spinoffs which make life easier on Earth, create employment and encourage growth, arise when people have big dreams. Even though we may fall short of those dreams, in reaching out for them we accomplish so much.
The minute we stop having dreams, including on an individual, personal level, is the minute we start to die.
Yes, we all die, but for instance: those magnificent cathedrals bestowed by the Middle Ages took decades, sometimes centuries to complete. The skills and enterprise required – whilst intended to glorify God – are a testament to man’s ingenuity and spirit. Those who dreamed of them knew they wouldn’t be around to see their dreams realised, but realised they were. Flying buttresses, anyone?
The author messes with that spirit at his, and our peril.
How long is it since we had dreamers like that?
Speak to more women;
What do you mean?
I think she is referring to this bold (and unsubstantiated) claim by the author:
“there are those who care passionately about space and those who don’t give a fig. Men are prominent in the first group, women in the second. Go figure.”
Musk is certainly one.
Gaudi beats Musk
What a silly, spiteful article.
I think the article is important because it forces us to ask what is the point of Musk and Bezos’s space ambitions? John Galt’s comment goes part way toward answering that question.
It’s an interesting question, but the article is pretty cheap.
Musk and Bezos both have been willing to invest big in Space, they were both told it was a bad or even stupid idea. There is a old joke that goes, how do you become a millionaire in Aerospace, start off as a billionaire, Must started SpaceX with a rather small sum, compared to NASA
It has paid off big for Musk but as of yet its been a huge money pit for Bezos, both are doing it because they grew up dreaming of the Apollo Moon program and were disillusioned by the lack of progress from the mid 70s on. the Space Shuttle was a big set back
Musk won’t get a city on Mars, but a research base is clearly possible, and base on the Moon too, large space telescopes, faster probes to the outer planets, a lot of things become possible if you have a cheap launcher that can put 100 tons to LEO regularly
A very confused, trite, and rather cynical view in a childish way, of our adventure in space from this writer.
One senses that Musk shares that mistaken belief that gravity is a tyrant, that a different world will produce a different human.
That vision seemed preposterous, but rather harmless, when described by Hale. Expressed by Bezos and Musk it seems downright frightening.
I do get a bit tired of people writing about what they sense about someone then arguing with what they imagine that person thinks. I’m guessing we’ll see more of these cheap shots a Musk. Don’t stick your head up above the crowd is the message.
I think you’ve nailed it, Brett. Always easy to set up a straw man and then undermine it with personal opinions, without bothering with considering the other side of the argument.
Mr DeGroot strikes me as rather a sad individual, if he’s made a specialism of opposing the pioneering and visionary endeavour of others – without any outstanding achievements of his own that might give him some credibility.
Agreed. I think we’ll see much more of this Musk bashing now that he’s aligned with Trump. As a man, I don’t give a fig about space exploration, but I fully support anyone who wants spend their billions as they see fit. There have been many skeptics of technological advancement over the years who have had to swallow their pride, even posthumously, as the fantasies have become reality.
I have no issue with Bezos, but I definitely think Musk should mover to Mars. This will be for the betterment of humanity. I will come to the spaceport to wave him off.
One man with the stars the other flat footed on the ground.
Let’s just say that being on a different planet to Elon appeals to me.
Elon, if you’re reading this, could you send Martin on a one way trip to Venus or better yet Neptune, thanks
How do you manage it Martin, wrong about everything, its remarkable
It probably appeals to many people you and Musk being on different planets.
He won’t do anyone that favor, he will send some poor souls to try to survive on an inhabitable world, he won’t risk his own life, he will stick around earth like a sore thumb wreaking havoc because he believes he’s all powerful. Trump enjoys his company, they are the perfect fit.
Hell start with the hairdressers.
Bezos is one dimensional compared to Elon. Elon is a genius maverick – one of a kind in a lifetime – a crazy mix of so much and the richest man on earth. Self made at that. Bezos is a very good businessman, granted.
How very dare you criticise Emperor Musk, leader of and investor (expecting galactic returns of course) in the world and universe – and as the new Rocket Man up there with the Korean satrap. Maybe the Orange Man in his pocket will build some nice golf courses there – red sand in the bunkers?
OK. Red sand bunkers funny and thoughtful. The rest is misplaced angry sputum.
Sensitive lot you touch their rockets! Serious business, rockets. No joking. Don’t even give the critic a fag paper of leeway. Cancel him. Christ! Who in their right mind would go live in a tin box for humanity? Silly question. No shortage of volunteers obviously.
With an article in UnHerd to vent his spleen, this author has been granted more than a fag paper, wouldn’t you think?
Well, I meant by the fag paper to point out the herdlike character of the commentary. Or are we to view unheard and it’s readers as a kind of ameoba like the Guardian, but unheard publishes opinions for it’s readers hate, so they’ll think they’re different.
You are missing the point.
Why are misspelling unheard? Its the possessive doesn’t have an apostrophe btw.
A sinfully costly religion-surrogate.
Don’t be ridiculous. What do you think humans did for tens of thousands of years before *your* religion became a means of people/thought control? Put in context, religion, in any organised sense with a specific doctrine *which must be obeyed* is a mere interloper in human dreams.
The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson is worth a read. Plenty of revolutions against the founders. Takes a long time to get to Blue Mars.
In the time of the lunar race, it was easy to be a space skeptic, because space exploration cost fortunes that only governments could afford. You could always use the priorities argument: for any dollar spent for space (there is no money being spent in space) there was a more immediate need in the ever-hungry social welfare system. After all, what did those perpetually vision-lacking governments get for their money but flags and footsteps?
But now that Elon Musk has made space development cheap enough for business to afford, the whole equation changes. The capitalist world has already discovered that it can’t survive without satellites. As the cost of extracting mined resources goes exponentially higher, such enterprises as robotic exploitation of asteroidal metals is starting to look a lot more promising.
Will there ever be human settlement beyond Earth? Viable habitation on the Moon or Mars is as unimaginable now as Falcon and Starship were fifty years ago, but mankind has a long history of settling permanently in places that are far lesss than ideal. If DeGroot were right, all humans would live in Hawaii and nowhere else.
Mars is already 95% CO2. Does he hope to extract Oxygen from extra CO2? Atmospheric pressure is a function of Mars gravity. He can’t add to it as if it were a balloon. The best source of O2 is plant life. Would need to start with mosses and lichens. Unless he has a fusion reactor for power enough to split H2O. Whichever, new technology would most likely turn up long before such slow crude means provided a breathable atmosphere.
Mankind needs those who dream big. Especially when they execute on their own dime.
I read today that Elon’s fortune has escalated to 319 billion.
Thank you Mr DeGroot, now I understand a little more why I’m in the space camp. It may have unusual individuals, and it will just carry the human condition to new places, but it is our era’s incarnation of the human spirit to find the boundary and go past it. In the distant future someone like you Mr DeGroot will sit in their home office on Proxima Centauri b and moan about the weirdos who want to go to Lalande 21185.
I get it. Musk and Besos were born as nobodies — like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, Jobs.
“Really, darling. Not our kind.”
Musk wasn’t just born “a nobody”. He was born a South African as well.
You’ve said that before. What’s the problem?
I can only assume you haven’t met many South Africans.
You assume far to much from what I’ve seen.
I’m South African. What’s the problem?
Do you still live in South Africa? If so, no problem. It’s the ones that destroyed their country with apartheid, and then moved somewhere else (mostly Australia, as far as I can tell) that I have a problem with.
I may be mistaken, but I somehow get the feeling that the author is a space sceptic.
sorry to inform but I heard China is building a base on the moon, hurry up Elon!
Any alien life form observing our development must be thinking, “Oh, no! They are escaping! Stop them before they infect us!”
Pity the author has never read the good sci fi from the 60s and 70 s. Plenty of viable ideas there. Even Kim Stanley Robinson thought things out in his Mars trilogy. Greg Bear in Moving Mars. More recently Neil Stephenson wrote Seven Eves to show the impossibility of settling the solar system further than the asteroids. But said asteroids still end up with some billions of inhabitants. While the author is complaining, , others are thinking and dreaming.