1961 Magazine Fall 2016

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
MISSION CONTROL:
Jim, we’ve got loads of information we will be going
over. I’m just going to record it so I don’t miss anything,
if that’s ok.
DR. JIM RICE:
Yeah…..and I warn you sometimes I talk too much, so
just tell me to shut up if you need to.
Mission Control: [Laughing] That’s what the recordings
for Jim, so I don’t have to tell you that. Now I have to
ask you, is there any sort of competition/race between
countries to get people to Mars?
Jim Rice: Not really, it’s not really like it was in the
60’s. I mean the Apollo program was part of the cold
war and the NASA budget was about 41/2 - 5% of the
Gross National Product at the time. Which is huge,
now it’s down in the weeds. It’s nothing compared to
what it used to be in the Apollo days. Fear is a great
motivator. So it’s not the same.
I mean those personalities: Kennedy, Khrushchev; the
Cold War, all this stuff going on – space it’s a frontier,
just like another theater in the cold war and proving
our freedom, democracy and our way of life and that
our technology is better than what the Soviets had
to offer back then.
So there’s nothing out there. People try to talk about
one [the Space Race] between the US and China. It’s
just not really panning out like that. I think that the
Cold War was a unique point in history. It would be
hard for that to roll around in the same form or fashion.
There’s not really a firm competition between countries
to get to Mars right now. It could change, of course.
You know, a space program is a showcase for your
country’s technology, so your political system can take
pride. It can be used for propaganda purposes as well.
So other nations are interested in that, but it’s just not
a race like it was in the ‘60’s – an all-out race. Like I
said, things could change, but not right now. If it was
a priority, we could have gone to mars a decade ago.
MISSION CONTROL:
So there’s not a race to Mars? Then who will be the next
country to go to the moon?
DR. JIM RICE:
The Chinese appear to be heading, in terms of
astronauts, to the moon. I don’t know when they will
do that, they haven’t really pinpointed a day or year
yet, but it’s probably going to happen around 2020
to 2025 - somewhere in that window, I’m guessing.
It will be interesting when they do that because the
United States, at least at this moment in time which
we speak, have no plans to put a man on the surface
of the moon either.
The Chinese, I’ll use them because I think they will
be the next nation, unless we get our game together
over here, they’ll be the next nation to put people on
the moon. For most people in the world, its kind-of
going to be like the first time. I did some numbers
the other day. Out of the world’s population today
75% of the world population were either too young
to remember or weren’t born yet when we landed on
the moon. If the Chinese do put people on the surface
of the moon, for most people in the world, it’s going
to be like the first time. Apollo will be 50, 50+ years
ago when it happened.
Europeans are talking about a moon or lunar village
type thing. There’s a lot of countries talking about
the moon and the US kind-of isn’t right now, but you
know that could change and I just wonder that if the
Chinese do put people on the surface of the moon,
what that will be like?
You can imagine the technology being HD video, or
whatever it’s called then, and Chinese astronauts are
going to be tweeting, or whatever it’s going to be
called then, from the surface of the moon, it’s going to
be different. And my question I have is for the United
States is: What is it going to do to the population of the
United States? Are they going to shrug their shoulders
and go, mmm that’s cool…..we did it 50 years ago? Is it
going to get people to say we should be doing these
types of things again?
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1961 Magazine Fall 2016