“What makes one step a giant leap
Is all the steps before.”
— Leslie Fish, from “A Toast for Unknown Heroes”

In some ways, looking at the Apollo program is misleading.
Especially now that three decades have passed to blur the details,
it’s easy to take the impression that Sputnik went up, JFK waved his
hands, and suddenly we were landing on the moon.

It took a lot more than that. Just along one path, someone had to
design every part of the rocket, capsule, and lander. Someone had
to mill each part, and someone had to assemble them.

Previously, someone had to train the engineers to design the parts.
Someone had to do the research that told us what designs were
needed. Someone had to test and redesign.

Even more basically, someone had to make the paper that the
engineers drew on. Someone had to sell the pencils. Someone had to
keep the electricity running, and make the breakfasts, and bring the
coffee.

Many of these actions we take for granted. They are part of the
baseline of our civilization. We have systematized making paper,
distributing pencils, training engineers, and bringing coffee beans
from tropical regions to our home markets, roasting them, brewing
them, and putting the steaming cups in the hands of the people who
want them. All of this takes place without much of our attention.

At least it does until something goes wrong. Recently, for
example, we’ve been losing ground on science education. That’s a
problem that could lead to losing our ability to field engineers
later. So those who find and work on such problems are the
sustainers of our civilization.

So here’s a better way to look at the success of Apollo: millions
of Americans, just like us, continually built and rebuilt a robust
economy, with coffee and engineers and huge industrial capabilities
and much more, and when we gathered that enormous power behind the
inspiring vision of reaching the moon, we took not just thousands,
but billions of steps that accumulated into Neil Armstrong’s giant
leap for mankind.

Any grand project takes both the vision to give it direction and the
thousands — or billions — of steps to make it a reality.

Book Recommendation

Red Thunder by John Varley

When I read this and Mammoth, I felt like John Varley had returned
his attention to novels and thought, “Why shouldn’t science fiction
be fun?” I enjoyed this very much. It has something of the flavor
of an early Heinlein. Teenagers meet an eccentric retired military
man and his even more colorful Cajun friend. When an American space
mission flounders, it threatens the death of the crew and giving the
Chinese the first manned landing on Mars. The old commander has a
revolutionary space drive in his barn. Can they put together a
spaceship, save the astronauts, and make the first landing on Mars?
Is anything ever that simple?

—————
Anna Paradox is a life coach who speaks science fiction. Imagine
life is a game in which you choose your own winning conditions. The
most successful players use a coach. To find out more, or to
schedule a sample session, write to me at anna@annaparadox.com, or
call 505-640-0979.

—————
Wings of Infinity, 2100 Thomas Dr, Las Cruces, NM 88001, USA