Oh, Tom Wolfe is right about one thing — in terms of rocketry, NASA was more ready to go to Mars as a piggyback on Apollo than today.
But, Wolfe is either woefully ignorant of, or deliberately overlooking of, how much we’ve discovered about the intensity of interplanetary radiation between then and now. (Shockingly, Stephen Hawking is, too.)
If we had sent men to Mars 35 years ago, with Apollo-level radiation protection, who knows what would have happened?
Also, we were clueless about the psychological issues.
Finally, NASA scientists knew post-landing “sterility” provisions for Apollo crews were woefully inadequate if the Moon had a actually had any life. That said, we are pretty sure Mars h as no bacteria, but, what if it has dormant virus-type life? Even today, we might not be able to fully protect against that being brought back to Earth.
At least Wolfe isn’t as triumphalist as someone like Krauthammer.
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