Midlife moon crisis: Is there life on Mars?

The average lifespan of an American male is 75.8 years according to the latest medical research. The distance between this big blue marble we call home and its moon is about 238,900 miles. That’s according to NASA and I guess we’ll just have to take their word for it, because they are the only people who’ve ever been there. 

What do these two numbers have in common? I’m still trying to figure that out myself, but maybe we can sort it out together. 

Next month, if I manage to survive another 45 days or so depending on when you are reading this, I’ll turn 41 years old. That means I have more years behind me, on average, than I do left to live. To be honest, I never thought I’d make it this long. I never thought I wouldn’t, but when you’re young and have the bull that is life by the horns you don’t think about waking up middle aged with all of the cares and/or worries that come along, such as watching your cholesterol, making sure your kids are at least trying to make decent grades at school and cutting grass … again.  

Besides looking up every now and then on a clear night, I’ve never thought much about the moon, but suddenly going to outer space is very interesting to me. As I hammer this out on a keyboard, four astronauts are preparing to make the more than a quarter-million-mile flight to the moon and back. If successful, it will be the longest crewed space flight in history (as far as we know) and the first to travel close to the moon since 1972. 

The ultimate goal of the 10-day Artemis II mission and its four team members is to pave the way for future moon landings and hopefully establish long-term bases for deeper space travel, and more importantly, lunar exploration and extraction of valuable minerals to make the computer chips needed for the further development of artificial intelligence. 

There are still people who believe the moon landing was faked. Can you imagine if that happened in the world of AI? With just a few clicks and a simple prompt you can make a picture of anybody on any planet and folks will argue its validity on the internet for days. 

The idea of living in outer space just may well be right around the corner, and the adventure of the unknown is calling out to me. I want to experience the thrill and danger of doing something to advance human history. I want to break the shackles of the cubicle in my windowless dungeon and launch myself into something new and exciting, like discovering life on Mars.

Or I’m having a midlife crisis. 

It’s a shame that I can’t afford a sports car.