Ray Bradbury tells it like it is
In this Los Angeles Times profile just before his 90th birthday on August 22, Ray Bradbury tells it like it is. Some key quotes:
We should never have left [the Moon]. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever.
I think our country is in need of a revolution. There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.
We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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In this Los Angeles Times profile just before his 90th birthday on August 22, Ray Bradbury tells it like it is. Some key quotes:
We should never have left [the Moon]. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever.
I think our country is in need of a revolution. There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.
We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
With one voice he calls for grand (and hollow) gesrtures of massive Moon and Mars colony programs – then says “We have too many machines now.”?!!
hehe, old man is inconsistent :)
Sometimes when I meet people who rant and rave like this, and when they’re actually capable of paying attention and setting aside their preconceived notions for a few minutes, I ask them:
Q: how long do you think it will take NASA to get back to the Moon?
A: it shouldn’t take any longer than Apollo did.
Q: ahh, but NASA isn’t now what it was back then, have you seen how bureaucratic and risk adverse they are now?
A: yes, I have, but they don’t need to be!
Q: sure, but they are. So, to get to the Moon you need 3 things.. a booster, a capsule and a lander. Which should NASA work on first?
A: all of them, at the same time!
Q: according to history, that’s what happened in Apollo, but it didn’t really. The booster was developed first, 3 different capsules were developed next, and the lander was developed last and was late. So what order should NASA do it in this time?
A: That order sounds reasonable, but more has been done on the Orion capsule than on the booster or the landers.
Q: well, we have better boosters today than they had during Apollo, they would have drooled over the boosters which are available on the commercial market today. Why not use those?
A: we can’t! We need heavy lift!
Q: why? Because Apollo used heavy lift?
A: yes! You can’t do anything beyond LEO without heavy lift!
Q: ok, but let’s say NASA spends 10 years developing heavy lift and a capsule to go on top, should they use it to go anywhere while spending another 10 years developing a lander?
A: there’s no-where else to go! Any other mission is a waste of time!
Q: really? Apollo-8 went around the Moon, and didn’t need a lander to do it, was that a waste of time?
A: no, but it had never been done before.
Q: well, it’s not been done for almost 37 years, I think it’s time we did it again, don’t you?
A: yes, but that can’t be the end, we need to push on and land on the Moon.
Q: ok, but if it’s going to take 10 years to develop landers, shouldn’t we use the booster and the capsule to go somewhere? shouldn’t we spend some time thinking about where we can go without a lander and what important things we might do there?
A: yeah, I guess.
But I often never get to the end of this reasoning.
A lot of your reasoning is just assumptions.
==Q: ahh, but NASA isn’t now what it was back then, have you seen how bureaucratic and risk adverse they are now?
They are what they are ordered to be by Washington. now they are under civil service labor and management rules, that promotes waste and timidity – and makes them unaccountable to congress or the public. In the ‘60’s that was waved.
Or you could have it done for NASA by commercials without NASA involvement, and “oversight”. Purchased commercially it would be much cheaper and somewhat faster, adn you wouldn’t need to shake the chains of any civil servants..
>== to get to the Moon you need 3 things.. a booster, a capsule and a lander.
> Which should NASA work on first?
#1 – your assuming a particular design, and not a good one at that, so its a invalid question.
#2 – why should NASA develop any of them?
>= A: all of them, at the same time!
Good answer.
> Q: according to history, that’s what happened in Apollo, but it didn’t really.
> The booster was developed first, 3 different capsules were developed next,
> and the lander was developed last and was late. ==
Not exactly true. Design work on Mercury, and Apollo’s capsules, and the Saturn’s started in the ‘50’s, LEM and Gemini started in the ‘60’s after the space race was announced.
>==we have better boosters today than they had during Apollo, they would
> have drooled over the boosters which are available on the commercial market today.
Really? How were they so much better then the Titan’s in production in the ‘50’s?
>== You can’t do anything beyond LEO without heavy lift!
Griffinesta thinking.
;)
>==
> A: there’s no-where else to go! Any other mission is a waste of time!
Lunatic thinking.
;)
>= Apollo-8 went around the Moon, and didn’t need a lander to do it, was that
> a waste of time?
Lets get real – it was a PR stunt not even included in the mission plan’s until they were afraid the Russians were going to do something big and scoop them..
>== if it’s going to take 10 years to develop Landers, shouldn’t we use the
> booster and the capsule to go somewhere? shouldn’t we spend some time
> thinking about where we can go without a lander and what important things
> we might do there?
Actually you never stopped anywhere in here to think about anything important. Like what is necessary to open up space to large scale use and development?
What do you want to do on the Moon, and hence what equipment do you need to do it? Flags and footprints, and you just need a LEM. If you want a big permanently manned base your going to need something more no the scale of the Eagles in Space:1999, or the craft in 2001 a space Odyssey.