近距离内射合集

I remember watching the Apollo program鈥檚 moon landings as a small kid. Grainy images in black and white showed astronauts hopping in their space suits in low gravity, while crackling audio was heard over their images. I was angry that every channel was broadcasting their movements because I couldn鈥檛 watch my cartoons or favorite sitcoms. I was totally unaware of the significance of what I was viewing. I only related to the moon landings through the Tang that I would mix up and drink or the space toys that I played with.

Later in life, I became obsessed with studying the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, in awe at the bravery and ambition of both the astronauts and the NASA space programs. I am so proud that two of the 12 astronauts who walked on the moon, Ed Mitchell (Artesia) and Harrison Schmidt (Santa Rita), were from my home state of New Mexico. In 2019, I spent the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing as if it were a national holiday, watching the film Apollo 11 with my staff and eating a potluck feast.

I鈥檓 amazed that it has been almost 55 years since the U.S. sent a crew to walk on the moon and to explore its surface. Imagine how much technology has changed in those 55 years. The Apollo moon landings were made possible by computers the size of conference rooms. Today, almost everybody carries a smartphone with more computing and information-processing power than the computers used to land men on the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

To date, five countries have successfully landed spacecraft on the moon: the Soviet Union, the U.S., China, India and Japan. However, the U.S. is the only nation that has landed men on the moon, having done this six times, with 12 Americans walking on the lunar surface.

We have now entered a new space race, much like in the 1960s, in which the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged and spent billions of dollars. However, today, the space adversary of the U.S. is not the Soviet Union, but China. This nation is consistently launching space probes, while it has its own permanently crewed space station, Tiangong, where it conducts space experiments.

The latest move by the U.S. in its space race with China was the Artemis II launch, which sent one Canadian and three American astronauts to the far side of the moon 鈥� the greatest distance human beings have ever been from Earth. Artemis II and its crew were deemed an overwhelming success by the American public. This project is a stepping-stone to again sending humans to the moon鈥檚 surface in the next few years.

Many people question why the U.S. is engaged in another space race that could potentially cost us trillions of dollars. I read in the news that one prominent celebrity commented that the Artemis II was a waste of money. He asked why we spent the money on this mission when we have so many needs in our country, such as poverty and infrastructure, not to mention that we are engaged in a war in the Middle East. Virtually the same argument was made in the 1960s and 1970s when people questioned the different U.S. space programs.

Back in the 1960s, the main motivation for the U.S. competing against the Soviet Union was political. The goal was to demonstrate the technological superiority of democracy over communism. This indeed is one of the current goals as the U.S. competes against China in space. However, this goal is overshadowed by other, more critical goals. Each of the two competitors wants to be able to permanently land space crews on the moon to build space stations. These space stations would thoroughly explore the moon and conduct scientific experiments that could provide future advantages.

The first to create a space station could lay claim to huge portions of the moon and its possible treasures, such as rare minerals. This could provide materials for the next wave of electronics. Another dubious reason for winning the space race is for military purposes. A permanent space station on the moon could provide valuable intel or a base to launch satellites and military equipment, thus providing an advantage should the U.S. and China ever experience a head-to-head conflict.

However, in my estimation, the U.S. and China are competing in space because each wants to demonstrate its superiority and be recognized as the best. It is human nature. In the case of the U.S., it also allows our country to demonstrate that it is the best at forming alliances to make the conquest of space. The Artemis II mission was led by NASA, but was a collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency. The fact that one of the Artemis II astronauts was Canadian will hopefully help repair the tension between the U.S. and Canada, caused by President Donald Trump continuously referring to Canada as the 51st state of the U.S. The European Space Agency was also a partner in Artemis II, having helped with the Orion spacecraft that took the crew to the moon.

The participation of the U.S. in a new space race will be debated for years to come. The new space race will not be cheap. Competing in space will hand the U.S. a hefty bill. Not competing could be even more expensive in the long run.

Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the nonprofit International Business Accelerator. He can be reached at (575) 589-2200 or jerry@nmiba.com.