The Lunar Readout
A sign on the Moon that tells you whether the Moon is full.
The United States will place a display on the surface of the Moon, legible from Earth with the naked eye, that reads FULL when the Moon is full and NOT FULL when it is not.
The requirements are brief. The display must be readable from the ground, on Earth, without equipment, by a person who has just walked outside. It must read FULL or NOT FULL. There is no third state. Partial information is how we got here.
We are aware of the central engineering objection — that the near face is only lit when the Moon is near full, which is precisely when the sign is least necessary. The campaign considers this the contractor’s problem. That is what a contract is.
And the reason: the last two generations of American spaceflight have been justified on grounds the public cannot see. This one can be seen from a driveway in Nebraska. A country should occasionally build something enormous and pointless that every single person in it can look at. That is what the first Moon landing was. We would like to do it again, slightly stupider.
Asked and answered
- You could just look at the Moon.
- You could. The sign is faster, and it settles the argument.
- Or an app?
- An app requires a phone, a charge, a signal, and the decision to look at a phone. The sign requires a window.
- NASA or SpaceX?
- We genuinely do not care. We will not be commenting further and consider the question a distraction.
- Why not the far side?
- The far side would defeat the purpose, and this campaign has been consistent that there is a purpose.
- What does it cost?
- Less than one aircraft carrier. We checked.