In an interesting move by one of the iconic astronauts, Buzz Aldrin blamed science fiction for the lack of space flight in modern society. Aldrin currenly hosts a show for the National Geographic Channel called Unseen Moon. According to him, sci-fi fed greater expectations than realistically possible and led to a lack of interest in the general public of promoting space travel."I blame the fantastic and unbelievable shows about space flight and rocket ships that are on today," Aldrin said in an interview at the TCA. "All the shows where they beam people around and things like that have made young people think that that is what the space program should be doing. It's not realistic."
I'm sorry, but this statement is seventeen different kinds of wrong. If anything science fiction promoted the imagination and made a lot of the science facts today possible, including space travel. What prevents space travel from being more predominate is that it's not cost-efficient. With the rising privatization of space travel, that reason will likely mitigate.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-11-2008 @ 4:18PM
Midnight13 said...
Watching a space shuttle launch used to be exciting, it used to be a media event. The news doesn't even cover shuttle launches anymore. I understand that anything space related is important for scientists. Mundane things like moon dust and the temperture compared to earth's. But to the common person that's just not exciting. We've sent satallites and shuttles to the moon a number of times time. We're still waiting for a man mission to Mars. Space exploration should be exciting, but when we spend so much money just for one launch just to get more pictures of the moon. Its just like any other television show, its repetative and redundant.
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7-11-2008 @ 7:27PM
Jimmy said...
Aldrin is way off the reservation on this one. Most of the scientists and many of the astronauts were fans of science fiction and especially Star Trek. I agree with you that, if anything, science fiction from like likes of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke -- scientists who happened to write fiction -- did more to increase interest in space exploration. People aren't stupid. We know you can't just beam people around and fly through space at warp speed, but that doesn't mean we can't work towards that.
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7-11-2008 @ 11:53PM
BartmanDK said...
What the hell? Who in theire right mind would blame NASA for not beaming people all over the place.. Kids might think NASA is lame becaus they cant do that, but hey they are KIDS!!! Everyone with a little commen sense isent going to look at BSG and say "Hey why cant NASA build ships like that?"
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7-11-2008 @ 11:59PM
BartmanDK said...
What the hell? Who in theire right mind would blame NASA for not beaming people all over the place.. Kids might think NASA is lame becaus they cant do that, but hey they are KIDS!!! Everyone with a little commen sense isent going to look at BSG and say "Hey why cant NASA build ships like that?"
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7-12-2008 @ 12:00AM
BartmanDK said...
What the hell? Who in theire right mind would blame NASA for not beaming people all over the place.. Kids might think NASA is lame becaus they cant do that, but hey they are KIDS!!! Everyone with a little commen sense isent going to look at BSG and say "Hey why cant NASA build ships like that?"
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7-12-2008 @ 5:14AM
Brent McKee said...
Oh, Aldrin is certainly wrong. The problem is that there isn't the political will to do anything serious in terms of space flight, and there really hasn't been since he and Armstrong took their little stroll. There were supposed to be 20 Apollo missions, three were cut because we'd already gone to the moon and why keep going back. There weren't any serious plans for follow ups to the moon missions in the forty years since.
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7-12-2008 @ 12:17PM
betsyw said...
I also believe he's wrong. I grew up in the 60s loving everything about the Space Program, but I think the space program was largely a product of the cold war and the fear of the USSR becoming the dominant force in space. I suspect that taxpayers were more willing to fund the space program after Sputnik and the Cuban Missle Crisis, than they are now, rightly or wrongly. I think it's pretty well documented that many of the technological advances of the past 20 years have been created by folks who were inspired by Star Trek et. al as children. I understand his frustration, however.
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7-12-2008 @ 6:51PM
Alex - A.S. said...
The name is science FICTION. Youth are not as nearly as stupid as he assumes.
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7-13-2008 @ 6:57PM
trav said...
Buzz, you are a bone- head .. US sci-fi lovers are big boosters for continued research and development to get us OUT THERE.. Our real problems are the far left who want to throw more gift-do nothing-we owe them- they need it money where it will mostly go into administrators pockets.. and "BEWARE" America of candidates such as barama bama who will NOT support the future space programs..............................
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7-14-2008 @ 7:51PM
trav said...
HEY VOTERS! THE FUTURE OF THE SPACE PROGRAM IS IN YOUR HAND, AT THE BALLOT BOX... DON'T LET, IN THE POCKET NEW COMER LEFT WINGERS, TAKE OUR AND OUR CHILDRENS FUTURE'S AWAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
DON'T LET HUSEIN ORAMMA GET INTO OFFICE AND LINE THE POCKETS OF ""social reformers""... DO YOU HEAR ME NOW???
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7-16-2008 @ 1:03AM
trav said...
Buzz, you are goofy..........US/WE sci-fi fans are huge proponents of an active SPACE PROGRAM.... unlike certain farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr left presidential candidates [ osama bama ].....................
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