Moon Landing Mistake

40 years ago, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, and uttered the platitude heard 'round the world about One small step...

Today, the moon is vacant, except for the stuff we took there, and left.

It didn't have to be this way. What Neil should have said, perhaps his second line, was: "I claim these lands in the name of the people and the government of the United States of America."

The howls of outrage would have shaken the walls of the UN building, and possibly have been heard all the way to the moon, but so what? Such a statement would have made a moon landing an all-costs imperative for the Russians, which likely would have bankrupted them much earlier. The Japanese, and English would possibly offer to piggyback onto the American space program for a "piece of the action", and the French and Chinese would collapse in frustration at being unable to meaningfully compete.

Short term, such a claim would have had little real meaning, as the distances and expense would render operations there of most any sort prohibitive. Long-term, national pride would demand some sort of participation, and I believe that by today, the light from various lunar bases would be visible from earth.

As Frederick the Great* said: L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace.

*Google searches suggest that Patton was pleasantly surprised to hear the quote attributed to Fredrick. I kind of wonder what the German was doing speaking French. Admonishing French prisoners, perhaps?