What would Gort do?*


Watching in a whiplashing sort of way both the Artemis mission and the … other things going on in the world, I find myself pondering this very question: If Klaatu and his erstwhile robot companion were to come to earth now, what would happen? Would it be the obvious, where militarism results in us firing everything we can at any alien visitors (because of course they must be demons, right)? Most current events would suggest this, whether Klaatu be the Michael Rennie version or Keanu Reeves, whether they believe earth is too violent to be allowed to contact other planets, or that we’re creating an environmental disaster.

But then we do things like the Artemis mission, which from many accounts within the spacefaring community is a symbol of what we can do if we work together, in harmony, toward a difficult goal. It reminds me of the Apollo missions of my childhood, of the promise that humankind could be living on the Moon, or even Mars, by the time I grew up. That we could be doing those things because we worked together, had to work together to achieve them. And while I wasn’t (and am not) naïve enough to think all the motives were altruistic (it was—and is—a “space race” for a reason), I think on balance our attempts to look beyond our horizons have been helpful.

Or maybe I am naïve, brought up on the ideals of Star Trek while minimizing its contradictions, “infinite diversity in infinite combination” while running around trying to destroy Klingons and Romulans. Artemis commentators were nearly as effusive about these missions leading to mining the moon as they were about togetherness, and there was an undercurrent of “we have to beat the Chinese to it”—so, space race all over again.

So, WWGD? I fear no one will say, “Klaatu barada nikto” this time.

Jeff Georgeson
Managing Editor
Penumbric

* And no, this editorial does not follow the “theme” of the issue, but if I wait until June, Artemis will be out of the news, so … Plus, this is maybe a harbinger of, a prelude to that June issue. Who knows?