Believe

© Laurence B. Winn

Oct 1, 2000

Frontier theory, like all logic, is prescriptive. Do this; get that result. We have considered, logically, aspects of frontier theory that include the prospects for humanity (Universe 25), how to improve our chances (First, Buy Time), balancing risk (The Point Loma Legacy), how to make money (The Economics of Discovery), what society at large can do to ensure its own future (Cities in the Sky) and how individuals can contribute (Butcher, Baker, History Maker).

Art has been a neglected facet of the prescription, and it's a shame, because only art speaks directly to passion. Art does not lecture. It ignites ideas, incites wonder, provokes laughter and spreads hope like wildfire, but it does not lecture.

So here I am, about to lecture you on what others are doing to promote territorial expansion, whether they realize they are doing that or not, by employing the arts.

In a recent letter to the editor of Spaceviews.com, "Stellar Bear" wrote, "Destination Moon inspired the American people (to believe) that (going to) the moon was not just idle dreaming. If not for that film, I believe that JFK's 'moon in this decade' speech would have collapsed as fast as Bush's $450-billion Mars program."

Indeed, NASA is aware of the potential of filmmaking to boost public interest in space exploration. NASA scientists have been involved in Hollywood productions since a few of them teamed up to help design the U.S.S. Enterprise of Star Trek fame. More recently, the space agency's scientists have provided technical input for Ron Howard's Apollo 13, Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys and the asteroid thriller Deep Impact. Astronaut Story Musgrave, who, at 61, helped to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, consulted on director Brian de Palma's Mission to Mars.

Incidentally, after Musgrave retired from the agency, he went to work in Walt Disney's "imagineering" department designing space ships and moonscapes. Now, he says, he's more of an artist than a technician.

Not to be outdone, television's NBC network recently inked a deal to send one civilian contest winner on a voyage aboard a Russian spacecraft. The show will parallel the successful Survivor series, with contestants undergoing cosmonaut training at Russia's Star City. Each week, Russian space officials will weed out one player, until only one remains. Dreamtime Holdings, Inc., is pursuing similar arrangements with CBS, ABC and Fox that would use NASA facilities at Houston to train contestants hoping to be selected to spend a week aboard the International Space Station. ABC has a show called Life on Mars, which follows the activities of participants in a simulated Mars outpost.

Former Apollo astronaut Alan Bean's haunting lunar depictions place him among the world's premier space artists. "One of the things I most want to achieve with my paintings is to give people a connection with the otherworldly feelings I and my fellow astronauts had on the moon," he says. That "feeling of connection" is what gives art its strength and durability.

Aside from Robert Heinlein's Green Hills of Earth, we have yet to hear much in the way of songs with space themes. Among modern artists, perhaps Mobius Dick comes closest with Embrace the Machine, which uses altered voices and science fiction sound effects to rally support for the cause of technology. The song is a reaction to the fears of technophobes like Sun Microsystems' chief scientist Bill Joy, who believes that certain technologies pose a threat to humanity. (Author's note: They probably do, but only to an enclosed humanity.)

With Indistinguishable from Magic, also from Mobius Dick, we are reminded of Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law, that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. It is a comfortable image of technology, is it not? Magic, sorcery, the reduction of Frankenstein to Mickey Mouse.

There is Bean's "feeling of connection" again. The otherworldly masters for whom we are still waiting, for whom we may have to wait until there are artists living and working in space, will give words, music and images to our thoughts and feelings about the future, so that only having seen, heard and understood their work will we recognize those feelings in ourselves, and believe.