Went to see First Man, the kinda meh Neil Armstrong biopic, yesterday, and only today learned that this month is the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 8 -- the Borman-Anders-Lovell mission that went around the moon over Christmas week and sent this photograph above as a Christmas present to the world. They did not think it would be more than fifty years and no one after the Apollo crews has gone back.
Meanwhile National Geographic has a story exploring the possibility that mammalian reproduction won't work in low gravity. Not the procreation part -- that'll get figured out the old fashioned way -- but it's not at all certain that embryos will develop as they are supposed to without the proper gravitational cues. And if kids who don't roll around in earth dirt enough grow up prone to allergies and such, what are the chances for someone reared in low gravity and none of Earth's biota around?
!t's cold and dark out there. (First Man got that part.) Elon Musk can go to Mars if he wants, but we oughta take care of this place.
