CODE NAME: MOONLESS

The Unknowing

Thank you for reading CODE NAME: MOONLESS and I hope you enjoyed the story. 

Conspiracy theory and shadow government stories are fun to write and read about. The idea that a secret society is running things behind our backs and our democratic institutions are nothing but cover for the men in black to run our government correctly in the shadows despite our foolish aspirations for a government directed by The People. 

What motivated me to write this story has been my conviction that history is never what it seems to be, there is always more to the story than what is being told. 

The second reason behind writing this story is an awful sense of disappointment in the abandonment of manned space programs funded by the various world powers and Humanity's lack of knowledge about outer space. 

I was born July 12th, 1969, just eight days before Neil Armstrong became the first Human to walk on the moon. I grew up watching the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, more than I should of, because it has taken me over forty years to grasp a basic understanding of this monumental motion picture about the conquest of Space. I grew up watching the space shuttle progress from piggy back rides on top of passenger jets to the glorious blast off missions. I have grown up to be a geek saying silly phrases like, "Live long & prosper", then of course, "May the force be with you!" My entire life has been influenced by the fact and fiction of Humanity traveling into the stars.

However, even by now, 2018, we can't even travel to the moon or should I say we don't want to travel to the moon or should I say those in power don't want to waste money and valuable resources returning to the moon. At the same time, those in power keep talking about impossible manned missions to Mars. At the same time, those in power keep sending unmanned moon probes to investigate the lunar surface time and time again, but no manned missions to the lunar surface. At the same time, the people in the know, scientists, keep telling us all about something called the big bang and the continual expanding universe, while doing all this stuck on Earth and using space probes, but no manned missions to investigate first hand that their theories are correct. 

I know a lot of people who are upset, because they do not have a flying car parked in their drive way or should I say parked on their roof. I have friends who are upset, because they must travel coach to a business conference, instead of using beam me up scotty transporters. I have met people who hate weapons, but those same people would sell their house and even their family, to own a fully functional Luke Skywalker light saber. 

I am upset, because there are no moon bases, colonies, or cities planted firmly on the lunar surface. I grew up feeling like my generation had been promised, no, let me rephrase that, my generation had been guaranteed there would be moon settlements and we would be traveling comfortably by space shuttle to our lunar homes. 

Didn't you see Airplane II? You know, the movie with William Shatner, commanding a space traffic control center on the moon.

I feel ripped off and cheated. Before I die, I really wanted to travel to the moon and walk where Neil Armstrong had spoken, "One small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind." But, no, instead our great voyages now are sailing Disney Cruise Lines, hiking up the Eiffel Tower, and waiting forever in line to revolve ourselves on a big wheel overlooking London. What happened with, To go where no one has gone before?

I feel we have taken one step backward and there will never be two steps forward in my lifetime.

What I really do not understand is all the unmanned moon probe missions that have been sent to the moon since the 1950's till this very day. Yes, after the cancellation of the Apollo missions of the 1970's and into the 2000's, the US and other nations, plus private company ventures, have spent billions of dollars launching moon probe missions. All these unmanned moon probe missions have had various goals, like flyby observations of the moon, achieving orbit around the moon to study its terrain, landing on the moon surface for samples and/or measurements, and even to purposely impact upon the moon to collect data. By the way, so many of these moon probe missions were absolute failures, over and over again. Wasting millions of dollars on failed moon probe missions and then spending millions more on successful moon probe missions. Meanwhile, the Earth's nation-states keep saying its too expensive to finance manned missions to the moon. All this money being spent to spy on the moon, but never to shove our apelike faces into the old man in the moon's nose and say, "What's up?"

So, what is up with all that? What are we trying to avoid? What are we scared of? I have been told that a child using an iPhone today has many times more computing power than the astronauts used during the Apollo moon missions. That means our technology is far superior today to that of forty-six years ago and with that superior technology wouldn't it be easier to restart a new series of moon missions? Since 1972, NASA has experienced many more extensive space ventures like the space shuttle program, the international space station, space telescopes, and all sorts of space and/or planetary probes. NASA was born in 1958, so this year is NASA's sixtieth birthday, meaning NASA has massive experience dealing with the tremendous difficulties of space exploration, so why would the return of manned missions to the moon seem so impossible to the world's most highly technological, extensively experienced, and scientifically knowledgable organization in the history of human civilization?

The United States, Russia, Japan, China, India, and Europe are all part of this tip toeing around approach of one day humans returning to the moon, however the United States has spent more decades, resources, and treasure studying the moon from afar. Why is the United States and all the other world powers taking their precious time in building settlements on the moon? NASA has announced plans to start manned missions orbiting the moon in 2023 and hopefully the 2020's-2030's will see humans walking on the surface of the moon again. What about the 2040's, the 2050's, the 2060's, and even the 2070's? After an entire century, one hundred years after humanity's first footsteps on the moon, will there actually be permanent settlements established? Will the moon be like Antarctica with research stations just for scientists? Will the moon have human bases featuring supply, repair, and launch facilities to continue our journey into the stars? Will colonies, towns, or cities start to flourish all over the moon?

At the rate the Human Race is approaching so slowly and cautiously about relaunching humans to walkabout the lunar surface that by 2069, my one hundredth birthday and the one hundredth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalk, I doubt there will be any settlements. It would not surprise me at all, if there will be no serious structures or bases, especially no colonies or cities whatsoever on the moon. I feel the space pioneering spirit of the 20th Century will have fizzled out by the mid and late 21st Century, if no advancements are made in returning to the moon. 

This unknowing of what is to come for the residents of Earth and the barren craters of the moon concerning off world human colonizing is what helps spawn conspiracy theories declaring the Apollo moon landings were a hoax fabricated in a broadcast studio. There are already millions upon millions of people all over the world, especially in the third world, who believe men have never walked the moon and humans visiting the moon is completely impossible.  

This unknowing of what are the grand plans the of world governments concerning the moon has created an atmosphere of secrecy and holding out of vital information. I know for myself, there is a feeling of being fooled by governments and space agencies concerning on what they really found on the moon. Did they discover or bumped into something or someone they will never tell us about? 

This unknowing of why humans charged warp speed towards the moon, then after walking around and driving a dune buggy on the moon, decided to slow down to impulse power by never sending humans again, but kept sending mechanical scouts/spies to keep an eye on the mysterious moon. This subject is what gets me mad. After Lewis & Clark explored the Louisiana Territory and found a route to the Pacific Ocean, did the United States halt all further exploration and settlement of these new lands for fifty years? Did the United States just send scouts for fifty years? No, they did not! After an Englishman finally climbed to the top of Mount Everest, did all the other mountain climbers of the world say, "Oh well, its already been done, so there is no need for the rest of us to climb to the roof of the world," the answer is no they did not! In both cases, people rushed in to explore these new frontiers for themselves, they did not just stop and twiddle their thumbs like we are doing with the moon.

The Unknowing. I just don't know, we just don't know what is going on with the moon. We do not know what is happening with this beautiful glittering ball in the Earth's sky and those in the know will never let us know what they know. I am sick of being a member of The Unknowing, because I want to know more about the moon. Aren't you sick and tired of having membership to The Unknowing? Don't you want to know more? Let us all upgrade our membership to The Knowing!