What’s behind that Smile of the Man in the Moon?
It is
highly unfortunate that the sources for the best images we have of the Moon have been shut
down as of January 18, 1999. For several days I have been trying to re-visit the official
web sites that were the repositories of the Clementine images for internet access. Denial
of access to the raw data has now extended from the illegal with-holding of the Mars
Orbiter Camera images taken from September 1997 to October 1998 into the realm of denying
access to old data that was once allowed. If such a policy is allowed to continue or to go
unmet with the most vigorous and loudest protest, then the science of Planetary Archeology
will flounder and die at the infancy of its birth. With the discovery of planets outside
our own solar system finally acknowledged by the stogy bastions of institutionalized
science and education, our first views of them will come from interpreting data from
instruments we send before we go ourselves. It is crucial that we develop the science of
Planetary Archeology to better understand and know a planet’s and its
inhabitants’ history before we actually send ourselves. And make no mistake, we will
find other places inhabited by others we must come to know and understand. The people who
send probes based on tax dollars have a legal and moral obligation to eventually share the
Universe they find out there with the rest of us. That obligation includes giving us the
Universe without flavor, censorship, secretive deals, or excessive delays. Our government
has not had the very best track record in honesty and openness. We must demand more
accountability on the part of our government and our representatives, we must become
involved personally in the preservation of our freedom to enrich our lives for the
betterment of our children. If we remain silent against tyranny we shall surely perish as
a nation and as a people. Until we can leisurely go to the Moon or Mars ourselves, NASA
has the legal and moral obligation to show us the data from their probes and to explore
the Universe on our behalf and at our behest.
Here are some links for the North Pole Temple Towers
area of "Our Moon":
Our Moon. We look up in wonder, amazement, yearning and a questing desire to reach out
and touch that enigmatic orb that seems to chuckle looking down at humanity. But is it
really ‘our’ Moon?
