There will be exhibitions, television documentaries, and a gala concert organised by Nasa. Over the course of this weekend, the world will quite rightly be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the first time a man walked on the surface of the moon. Even after the passage of half a century, it remains an unchallenged achievement and one that has still not really been bettered. And yet, there will also quite rightly be a nagging question behind that: what happened to all that innovation and drive?
The answer? It hasn’t disappeared. But it has been privatised. And we can now find it in the vast sums spent on blue-sky research by the giants of the technology industry.
With the benefit of hindsight, the moon landings were a dead end. We only went a few times, decided there was not much to get excited about, didn’t bother to return, and never pressed forward with manned exploration of the rest of the solar system.
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