Who could have been first on the moon?

A few years ago when I was teaching in Seoul, I visited the Seoul science museum. It was mostly geared to kids. Lots of buttons you push that have unexpected results like a bolt of electricity arcs between two wires or you find out what Karen Carpenter's weight would be on the surface of a neutron star. Kids love that sort of thing. There was also a space exhibit. Part of the exhibit was a little diorama model of the moon with your classic LEM and two astronauts exploring the moon. I've included the picture below the fold. Tell me if you see something rather odd in the photo.

[caption id="attachment_1099" align="aligncenter" width="520" caption="The moon is in fact made of kimchi, not cheese"][/caption]

A keen eye will spot not only did a TIE fighter get to the moon before Neil and Buzz's Eagle lander but apparently the Koreans got there first to plant the Taegeuk flag smack in the middle of the Eagle's LZ. (The resolution of my photo is not so good but the keenest eye would also notice there's an object forward and to the left of the TIE fighter. If memory serves, that was an Earth Force Starfury from Babylon 5.)

Now Koreans are a fiercely proud people and pride at times leads them down the path of anti-Americanism. Canadians have been there too. And I know it would just kill Koreans to admit the USA did something super stupendously amazing like putting 12 freaking men on the moon to Korea's big fat zero. I know it would kill Canadians to admit the phone was invented in the USA and not Canada. And I know it was a blow to red blooded Korean Confucian manhood when the Russians kicked the male Korean astronaut candidate out of the program and put a Korean woman in space first. And it's rather emasculating to Canadian manhood that hoggy teams in the USA keep taking the Stanley cup (a Canadian team hasn't won Lord Stanley's cup since 1993). But to set up a little model of America's Man on the Moon thingy with a Korean flag where Old Glory should go, well, that's just too much to stomach. Even by a Canadian. You're going to have Korean school kids wander by and take away the notion Korea got there first. Like why spend $159 billion (in 2007 dollars) when you can just spend $15 on a cheap model diorama.

Canadians would never stoop to this!

Ever.

But they did. Just the other day.

[caption id="attachment_1100" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="No, probably could not have been us"][/caption]

The Canadian news made a big deal out of a former Canadian engineer who worked on the space program claiming Canada could have been the first nation on the moon. If only we had done x and then y and then z and then xx and then yy… Woulda coulda shoulda. Read it here.

The moneyshot (or moonshot) headline reads:

Canadians lament why they weren't first to walk on moon

And a top former Apollo engineer and a Canadian is quoted as saying:

"It was a frustrating moment," said Jim Floyd, the chief designer of the Avro Arrows. "It could have been us."

As a Canadian, I'm somewhat disgusted by this article. First some background on this Avro Arrow. Not many Americans, I'm sure, have heard of it. Basically the Arrow was a supersonic interceptor Canada was designing and building to fly really fast over the Great White North and shoot down Soviet bombers lumbering over the arctic circle. The Canadian government canceled the jet program after Sputnik. It became apparent the Soviets would lob nukes via missiles. The plane was obsolete before a pilot even took it on a test flight.

I delve a lot more into the Avro Arrow and what I call the Cult of the Arrow people on my Conspiracy Skeptic podcast. Check out "Episode Ten: Canadian Conspiracies".

Anyway, other than a headline and a couple quotes, nothing in the article actually goes on to establish how a handful of Canadian engineers who were pulled off the Arrow program and found enriching careers in NASA could have put Canadians on the moon first. We're just left to create some slippery slope in our mind. It's beyond "phase 1 steal underpants, phase 3 profit" pipe dreaming. Couldn't a reporter have asked "how would we have done that?" Sigh. Print journalists are just as lazy north of the border.

Maybe Engineer Floyd was taken out of context but if he simply followed the money, he'd see how silly he sounds. The Apollo missions consumed, at one point, about 4% of the American federal budget.

The US GDP in 1968 was $910 billion. In 1968 NASA budget was $4.7 billion. It spent .5% of GDP on the space program

The Canadian GDP in 1968 was $75 billion. Canada would have had to spend 6% of its GDP on a moon mission in 1968 alone. The Canadian federal budget in 1968 was about $13 billion. It would have had to spend over one third of its budget on a space program. Good bye vaunted Canadian public healthcare. Good bye Hockey Night In Canada on the CBC. For starters.

Gimme a break.

The real story is and should have been some former Canadian sword errr Arrow makers beat their knowledge into the ploughshares of an amazing space program. Canadians are largely ignorant of the fact killing a white elephant project like the Arrow allowed Canada to claim some important part in humanity's greatest adventure.

-- Karl Mamer

P.S. I visited the Seoul Science Museum on a recent holiday (errr "vacation") to Seoul and I'm pleased to report they've wisely taken down that silly diorama. Koreans stepped up. Hope we can too.