Book Review: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

My goodness...

I have yet to consume any Ayn Rand but I would imagine that Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has got to go up there with Rand in terms of solid Libertarian manifestos.

"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."

and

"I beg of you — do not resort to compulsory taxation. There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."

These are just two of the numerous quotes from the novel that truly resonate with me and I would think with many of the libertarians and Silicon Valley inhabitants among us.

The novel itself is, in theory, science fiction, as it takes place primarily on the Moon and in the future (such as it was imagined when Heinlein wrote the work in the mid '60s).  Heinlein, like a proper great sci-fi author has a wonderfully imagined world of a penal colony on the Moon where the Earth sends many of its undesirables (not just pure criminals) to work as a compulsory labor force producing food for the starving masses back on the homeworld.  You have underground "warrens" where people live, a shortage of women driving all sorts of varied family structures, a mish mash of racial and religious backgrounds, a "self aware" computer, rock throwing rail guns, a global Lunar Authority, etc.  The novel is a futurist's thesis writ large.

Which isn't to say that this world is perfect--the participants are still tied to physical lines of communication--land lines for goodness sake!  But Heinlein can be forgiven for smaller items like this.  His overall call to arms for a rational anarchist revolution is an idea that grows with value each day.  A society with no laws or rules besides ones own morals may be a libertarian fantasy but that's not to say its not something to strive for.

While the main character of the novel is Manuel Garcia O'Kelly-Davis who speaks to the reader in a Russian like patois it is Professor Bernardo de la Paz who gives the novel its motion and inspiration.  la Paz is the theoretician and rational anarchist behind the Moon's revolution against Earth and it is he who drives the ideas Heinlein is directing to the reader. While I'm certainly not one to subscribe to all the ideas herein (and as this is a novel made to both entertain and to challenge it is NOT a political diatribe) the book does present a persuasive argument for revolution against authoritarian regimes as well as the subversive methods by which one might begin such an enterprise.  As with the best sci-fi novels, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is both an excellent critique of our modern world and an entertaining supposition on where we might be heading.  Well worth the read, it should really get your hamster spinning.

The Race Is On...

Between China, India, SpaceX and others...

Within the past week we have seen India's Mars probe exit Earth orbit and successfully transition to its outbound trajectory, China launch its Moon rover set to arrive in a few days and SpaceX put its first commercial satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit.  And here the US government is sitting with its thumb up its keester...

With the hope for US space ambitions firmly in the hands of the private sector SpaceX is our leading hope.  With today's 100% successful launch SpaceX has completed its second of three required successful launches in order to become eligible for US Military and other government agency work.  While SpaceX has a big backlog of commercial work ahead of it, opening up another revenue stream is never a bad thing.  Nor is getting a big satellite to a position about 1/9 of the way to the moon.  Only bigger and better things to come from SpaceX as they will continue to expand and build upon their run of success lately...

Is it so wrong of me to hope for the Chinese rover to impact the Moon at some uncontrollable rate, disintegrating on impact??   At some point if all these entities continue on their courses, SpaceX interests will conflict with Chinese or Indian interests...will the US be strong enough or willing enough to protect its own private enterprises since it no longer seems willing to protect itself or its interests in space??

SpaceX Completes First GTO Mission...

Where Old ICBMs Go to Die...

This was the first launch for Orbital Sciences Corporation's Minotaur V rocket.  Launched from Wallops Island off the coast of Virginia it was visible over much of the east coast.  Like many of Orbital's rockets it is derived older military rockets of both US and Russian design.

The Minotaur V is a derivative of the Peacekeeper ICBM and uses many of the ICBM's parts in these current rockets--recycling at its finest.  The Minotaur V can put almost 1,000 pounds into Lunar orbit and looks to have done so successfully with the LADEE NASA probe.  It is on its way to the moon (arrival date scheduled for 10/6) to study the Lunar atmosphere (really??) and dust conditions on the surface (again....really??)  Ahhh...leave it to NASA to spend billions looking for answers to questions that don't need answering...Regardless...nicely done by all parties involved.

Chesley Bonestell

 I first saw his paintings in a book my father has had on his shelf for now over 50 years.  I can't remember which book it was (Conquest of Space or Worlds Beyond I believe) but as a kid these images were likely what sparked my interest in space in general and the instill in me the need for humans to escape our little cradle.  I can still see the faded dust jacket with numerous cracks and tears from frequent reading.

The paintings were and are stunning and stand with anything created in the 20th Century, particularly in terms of influence and wide acclaim.  What I have not known till now is how wide Bonestell's influence was beyond this book of my father's and how often I had viewed his work unknowingly.

Bonestell was a designer on the Chrysler building in NYC, SF's Golden Gate Bridge, worked extensively on the image designs for Citizen Kane (frequently regarded as the #1 film of all time), was the character inspiration for an Ayn Rand character in The Fountainhead, worked as a large scale artist on films such as War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide and was frequently featured in Life and Scientific American magazines.  And I think we can see from the images how much of an influence he was on films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and many others. 

Its the clarity and realism of the work that stuns me to this day with the paintings looking far more like photographs than anything done by a human hand.  His work inspired many such as Carl Sagan and virtually the entire US space program and is still influencing scientists and artists today.  He also depicted things in his paintings really not discussed or known to the general public decades before they became science fact and not fiction such as binary star systems and the early, molten rock and comet ridden beginnings of our own planet.  Not bad for someone born well before man ever took flight.  Some of my favorites of his paintings are included here and there is a bit more extensive article linked below.

Chesley Bonestell article...