The legacy of Clyde Tombaugh called and wants its claim back.
Tombaugh, a rather obscure astronomer and architect of telescopes, who during the Great Depression is credited with “discovering” Pluto, would in all likely hood be appalled by the infiltration of identity politics into the exploration of space. The formerly known celestial body as a planet, Pluto has received a slew of reidentifications that rival the current viral culture of gender reassignment over the last 90 years, including the distinctions from planetoid to dwarf planet to a glorified asteroid at the cusp of the Kuiper Belt. The naming frenzy is solid evidence that space agencies have been barraged countercultural social movements and metaphor for Adderall doped up individuals perpetually changing the basis of their existence.
Spurred by the head honcho at NASA, a campaign has emerged to once again officially distinguish the celestial entity as a planet, at least for the time being. Through an official executive order within the space agency, NASA’s chief is pushing for reclassification of the diminutive icy world that is not visible to the naked eye, at least from earth. He will not be named, as the tax-payer money allocated to the civilian organization is effectively being wasted and combined with the poor track record of the organization in costing astronauts their lives because of poor fiscal decisions is not something that is easily forgotten, even though the Challenger disaster unraveled over four decades ago.
Unfortunately, private space exploration and rocket firms do not have the spending power of NASA to undertake megaprojects which are intertwined with the public relations mechanism of the federal government pursuing global prestige, an ongoing campaign and remnant of from the Cold War era. The fact that the agency conducts business with both China and Russia to secure booster rockets for launches is a deplorable indication that the affliction of bureaucracy is not necessarily in the best interest of the innovative space engineers and employees as well as citizens.
With Pluto being Pluto once again, and the success of the Artemis II lunar mission at least there is hope at the edge of the galaxy that efforts internally can overcome crippling cost-overruns and damaging oversights that threaten ingenuity in clearing a pathway to the stars.
While the issues on a terrestrial level need to be understood and addressed, the emphasis on diplomacy and regulating government overreach cannot be overstated in preserving the nation state and the pursuit of free will. However, humanity now has a small problem of Artificial Intelligence to deal with along with political correctness, which could reshape the trajectory of the future and the fate of the Clyde Tombaugh’s of the world pursuing exploration.
