My great-niece calls me the, "Man on the Moon". I can't wait to see her. I am heading Earthside in less than a month. I haven't been so ready to go back since... well never I suppose. It is hard for an old Moonie like me. It has been four years. Four on, one off for the last thirty years. It is hard on a body. Humans aren't designed for space.
I am prepared to hand the moon to my second, Burton. Hell, he pretty near revolutionized the Moon Colony and Reactors. I did build the company, but I had Dad's last name, a blank checkbook, support of NASA and JAXA, inspiration of great men, and the ambition of a thousand men. Ken and I did it though. Our last 'day' on the moon that is 336 earth hours Harbringer produced 3.2 tons of H3. That is enough to power the Eastern seaboard for a year.
I led a charmed life. Dad's wealth opened so many doors. I was sixteen when my older brother, Ken and I summited K-2. Luna was full in the day sky. I told Ken we would go there. We would mine there. He patted my shoulder and said why not. After I graduated I went back to California and used my engineering to build some machines and plants for one of my father's empires. I was back and forth with that and building some rovers and upgrading ATHLETE's at NASA's Aimes Research facility when I met a cute hippy named, Joyce. We couldn't have been anymore opposite, but you know what they say.
She was so down to earth. It was this that led me to "Sidewalks on the Moon" the late Nadir Khalili had been the architect that developed Cal-Earth where she was an instructor. Besides his philosophy of architecture and creating homes with earth, wind, water and fire. His love for Rumi and his inspired dreams had also brought him to NASA to discuss his brilliant ideas of building structures simply from the basalt and regolith on the moons surface and using an enormous guided lens to focus the energy of the Sun to essentially fire the surface of these structures like the firing of ceramics, led me to my own dreams.
NASA was on a skeleton budget and had placed several calls for independent contractors. I had the machines, I had access to the resources, but above all else, I had the dream, and the drive. I wanted to be in the history books. I suppose the rest is history.
As I mentioned though. Moon life is hard. It takes a dedicated person to be a Moonie. Two hours of Low-G exercise every 24 hrs to keep yourself from atrophy. One hour every 48 talking to a psychologist. We look out for each other. We are family. We teach children communication skills. We are members of a harsh frontier. We cannot have conflict. Our systems are designed for cooperation.
We recently had our first moon-born child. His name is Lucca. He is a genius. His mother, Naomi is one of my dearest. We wear many hats on the moon. She is the teacher, a child psychologist, and the finest barge and lander pilots I have ever known. I will miss her dearly. She and Lucca have leave in about eighteen months. I will then have a year with them on Earth before they return for another tour.
I am getting old though. I look at Earth with the same longing I used to gaze at the moon. Not exactly the same motives, but the same level of want. Gravity will be tough on these old bones. But my, how it will be grand to hear waves crash, feel breeze on my skin, take a dive into a clear river, feel the earth between my toes.
less than a month... just one more day on the Moon.
[ January 26, 2015, 11:20 PM: Message edited by: Bent Tree ]
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Sometimes being the "child of" is another obstacle to overcome. Besides, you have to put up with the feelings of people like me who resent that your path was greased by prominent parentage.
Posted by Kent_A_Jones (Member # 10234) on :
Harbringer...of doom? Everybody else was thinking it, I just had the moral conviction to mention it.
Hi Ben, You've said quite a bit about your moon circumstances, but little about yourself and your reasons for returning planetside permanently. Are you retiring? You're only in your fifties, right?
I've noticed that captains of industry fall mostly into two different categories, those who are goal oriented and those who are people oriented. Goal oriented leaders step on toes, more toes the bigger the endeavor; they make enemies, but are often forgiven due to the greater good that they create. People oriented leaders make friends, they are beloved; they make enemies, though, as a natural component of being at the head of an organization. How would you categorize yourself, Ben?
Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :
Pleasure to meet you, Robert.
I understand your resentment. My father was a great man, and a great father. He taught Ken and I to work hard, to be worth our own salt. I bought my first car, and paid my own tuition. Dad loaned me the money for my first business when I was fourteen. I was able to repay him about 18 months later. I never took my dad for granted. He was very supportive and encouraging.
Good to meet you as well, Kent.
What can I say? I was born with the name. I wouldn't call it retirement. I will continue to assist in operations from Earth, but my days there are over. In fact, I am 62. Moon life is hard on humans. No matter how you cut it, humans just aren't designed for it. All space agencies agreed to our mandated minimum 5yrs on 1yr off policy. Many, including myself feel that that should be tightened even further to 2:1. We spend so much time in Resistance exercise--2hours per 24 minimum in addition to 1hr per 48 with psychologist. It is hard to imagine the physiological challenges.
I can see myself as both goal oriented and a people person. Ambition is what it took to build my company and get it to the moon. I didn't have to step on too many tows. We were by nature innovators. We had thousands of minor conflicts with NASA in our early collaborations. Meeting or changing protocols and procedures was a major pain in the ass.
Once we got to the moon, being a people oriented leader is absolutely vital. We call each other by first name, we pay attention to each others needs. We have to work together. We are a functioning community that cannot escape each other. We spend a lot of time learning communication techniques. There are more psychologist on staff than engineers. That is our biggest obstacle.
It is a hard adjustment coming back home, where people don't even always know there neighbors. Two different worlds.
I have made a few enemies-- namely the Solviets. Things weren't ever smooth but they left the Moon entirely after their star engineer went LUNie and blew up the first civilian habitat. That is a whole other story. He actually broke into what is called Duke Island Prison. There have only been two prisoners there. Him and the one he killed after he, over the course of three months tunneled into the prison, killed the prisoner, and tried on his straight jacket about the same time the bomb he built took out the habitat. Psychologist will probably be studying his file for the next hundred or more years.
Off the record, Nobody ever liked them here. They didn't even like it here. They were like the weird guy that is always too drunk at a dinner and starts doing weird things like licking other people's spoons.
My crew is my family. I am finally biting the bullet and getting my ansible link implanted. What can I say? I am an old fart I remember cell phones. Computers that are organic and are considered species, internet of minds, Homo superus advanced men that can live for 800 years or more. and these implants( basically a genetically modified organism spliced with another seven pairs) enable our brains to communicate by ansible similar to that which they are capable.
I have seen so many advancement in my days. I just want to get back home and climb some mountains.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
The inner-typo-corrector in me forces me to query "Solviets." With an "L?" Some new organization? Or a mistake for an older one?
Meanwhile...no adaptation to lunar life possible for humanity without periodic return to Earth? (Excluding this homo superus link thing---though shouldn't it be homo superior?)
Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :
Pardon my typo, Robert. It is still the same old Soviets. I suppose we as humans could adapt ourselves, but then we wouldn't be H. sapiens I guess that H. superus are that type of adaptation. I didn't name them. I ponder these types of questions everyday. If we are to really explore space we will have to change ourselves. How much remains human?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I've stuck with the principle that "human is as human does"---it'll be how they treat what passes for their fellow men that makes or breaks it.
Posted by Grumpy old guy (Member # 9922) on :
Originally posted by Bent Tree:
quote:If we are to really explore space we will have to change ourselves.
The thing that makes us human is our ability to adapt to our environment; not through evolution but through the use of our intellect. We don't need to change to conquer space, we simply need to develop a suitable method.
However, this also begs the question: have we finished evolving? No, but what our next incarnation will be like is beyond me.
Phil.
Posted by Kent_A_Jones (Member # 10234) on :
Hi Ben, I brought up your last name due to its linguistic proximity to harbinger. If it were my name, I'd obsess about it. See, there are some people out there who have wounds that won't heal and they think they're the antichrist, while there are others who get help for their diabetes.
So, have you ever had any uneasiness about your last name?
Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :
I have indeed. My last name has brought me many things, grief, opportunity, exclusion, inclusion. I sometime wonder where I would have ended up without it.
Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :
Phil, I am glad you shared that thought because it is a thought that I once shared. I believed if we built better habitats, innovative systems and life support, We could star hop through the universe and land on an "earth-like planet."
That was before I spent thirty years on and off the moon. Humans can't do it. Our physiological design is too specialized, soaking in sun diffused through a particular gaseous atmosphere, breathing that atmosphere, participating in recognizable gravity, these are things you cannot go your whole life without and remain sane.
Our evolution is happening now. It is a vast and limitless path. It has already begun, Homo superus our ansible computers are living organism, an evolution of us in their own way.
It will happen with or without our participation it will happen, it is just our minds ability that will shape it in a different way.