Red and Rover by Brian Basset for December 09, 2012

The New Frontier…so near, yet so far.

This is so bittersweet. I was 8 in 1969. I KNEW I’d live and work on the Moon someday.

Then in 1973 they gave up the Moon Flights, and something in me died.

Someday, a million years from now, Aliens will find our footprints in the Lunar dust, and look up at the lifeless ball above them, and wonder what it was that failed, our courage, or our common sense.

I was like that in the sixtys.

And Red’s got Pluto hanging from his solar system. What a shock when they demoted Pluto…

Euclid by Vachel Lindsay

Old Euclid drew a circleOn a sand-beach long ago.He bounded and enclosed itWith angles thus and so.His set of solemn greybeardsNodded and argued muchOf arc and of circumferenceDiameter and such.A silent child stood by themFrom morning until noonBecause they drew such charmingRound pictures of the moon.

and to boldly go where no boy and dog have gone before!

I wonder if they will meet any aliens along the way. Calvin did today.

The cardboard box. Best toy ever!

“Americans do this that and the other thing, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.”

I was a kid then, and it has never left me. Indeed, it means more.

Not to be disagreeable, but don’t write that epitaph on our tombstone just yet. We’ve had some lapses, yes, but our story is going to continue! The universe is waiting for us!

Poignant as Sir Patrick Moore has passed away., and he helped NASA map the Moon .

The universe can afford to wait. I can’t, it’s been over 40 years since the moon landings and every year since we do less and less. Exploration and discovering new worlds was and is the key to economic expansion. It worked for Queen Isabella, and it worked for the US in the 60’s and then we gave it up.

This was in the days before the Democrats started raiding NASA’s budget to pay for their failed social programs.

If the moon looked that big from my window, I’d be scared.

A funny thing happened on our way to the stars. I think it was called Viet Nam.

D. D. Hariman, where are you now that we need you?

Anticipation! I remember those days!

The fat lady has not yet sung!

Never let go of your dreams, Red.

Such a shame kids today don’t have this kind of imagination any longer!

WOW! Brian, just…WOW!

we have lost our sence of wonder.

You’re right Jo Clear, that is indeed great art work today.

I agree. Space junk also comes to mind…

Brian, you outdid yourself on this one—beautiful color, light and shadows. Feels as though I’m there!

To Dream the impossible dream..

KM: The last trip to the moon with the only scientist ever to go there. The whole thing had been exposed as a showpiece for military test pilots with negligible science involved. The Soviets got as much scientific data without the human risk.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments and impassioned observations and opinions. We shall return!-Brian

A beautiful strip. I hope that we do return with a permanent outpost on the moon before resources become so scarce here on Earth. If we wait too long we might not be able to free up enough resources to return.

So pretty!