The World's Biggest Hoax and Men Back on the Moon

We’re going back to the Moon?

I hope you are all slightly interested in the theme of space and space exploration as it is probably my favourite topic - so we’ll all be learning more together.

The scale. The danger. The potential discoveries. The unknown. It’s all these things plus a million more that make space exploration so compelling.

There are so many subplots in humanities quest to discover the universe we could do an entire newsletter on that, to name a few: Space X (Elon Musk) Vs Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos), nation-state Vs private corporation, the history of the space race, birth of space tourism, extra-terrestrial life (ohhhh aliens, sure), incredible stories of bravery from astronauts and of course some incredibly nerdy physics and engineering.

What’s Happened?

My favourite Youtuber posted a YouTube video…that’s it, that’s what happened…. groundbreaking I know.

SmarterEveryDay is a YouTube channel dedicated to learning, engineering and just cool things.

Destin (creator of the channel) posted a video of a talk he gave to executives and other big-wigs in the space industry about going back to the roots of space exploration. It got me thinking, how is it that for love nor money, we couldn’t get man to the moon and back today yet 54 years ago - in 1969 - we did? Since then the internet has been invented, mobile phones have been invented, and we’ve even discovered new Galaxies - yet seemingly we’ve gone backwards.

So how is it that we’ve made all this progress yet are less capable today? Ambition I think is the answer - at least that’s my humble opinion anyway. Of course, it’s easy for me to opine on such matters having never tried to design my own rocket. But progress doesn’t just happen - it requires a huge effort, incredibly smart people and massive resources (400,000 people worked to build the rocket for Neil Armstrong to step foot on the moon).

With disasters like the Columbia explosion (7 US astronauts died) and the end of the Space Race, the momentum was lost and with the unbelievable expense of the Space Shuttle missions this ambition has been dampened.

But it’s back and more exciting than ever before. In 2022 there were 180 successful rocket launches - one every other day!

Why does this matter

The space industry would be unrecognisable in 2023 if compared with even 2013 - NASA has announced its Artemis Mission to get man back to the Moon (sooner than you think!), Space X has recently launched the most powerful rocket(/machine) in human history, Blue Origin is soon launching their next-generation spaceship, China is building serious momentum, and new space start-ups are a dime-a-dozen and making genuine progress. The future is incredibly bright for space exploration.

If you are at all like me and occasionally look at the stars on a clear night and think to yourself “Wow so many stars, wtf is out there, ok this is very overwhelming, I’m going to go inside now and doom scroll TikTok” then I’d ask you to join me in this journey of discovery (just as an observer of the amazing people pushing the boundaries…for now!). If our planet is as doomed as we are led to believe then becoming a multi-planetary species is not only the natural next step for our civilisation but also a critical one. Endeavours like the Artemis Mission and SpaceX Starship project will be the stepping stones that future generations are built on.

I think it’s about the most incredible thing humans are capable of doing (other than Tiger Wood’s 2019 Masters run, which was literally out of this world) - so let’s do our pre-flight checks and launch! I’ll stop with the cringe now.

Crypto is back?

The rise and fall (and rise and fall and rise and fall) in Crypto has been quite the story. Sometimes it’s the new solution to everything and at others the biggest hoax the world has ever seen. But recently things have been looking up - let’s dive into crypto’s recent revival.

What has happened?

On January 1st 2023 Bitcoin - the preeminent Cryptocurrency - was trading at around $16,000 and as of mid-December was around $42,000; a 150% increase! Sometimes trying to figure out even the most thoroughbred of bluechip stocks can be like trying to guess which character in Game of Thrones is going to die next (RIP Ned Stark 😔), but when it comes to figuring out the Crypto markets it’s more like trying to predict who is going to score the winning goal of the 2050 Football World Cup.

Why does it matter?

Well besides the obvious fact that 80% of my money is tied up in a meme-coin that I heard about on Twitter in 2021, the fact that Crypto seems to be flying again suggests it wasn’t just a Covidism and there might be more to it. The crypto market is now worth in excess of $1.6 trillion dollars - that’s the same as the GDP of Spain and Portugal combined. It’s no fad.

Month by month more ‘formal’ institutions start dipping their toes into the frenzied world of crypto! Many believe it is the perfect hedge against the out-of-control spending of governments and resulting inflation (yes, I know this isn’t the only reason!).

Don’t get me wrong Crypto has had its fair share of f*ck ups. The FTX saga where Sam Bankman-Fried embezzled his own customer’s money to take crazy bets on crypto, buy mansions in the Bahamas and charter private jets to get his Amazon Prime parcels delivered (seriously, I’m not joking) was just one such episode.

However, this year’s revival in crypto does have a different feeling from times of the past. While there is certainly money pouring in due to the anticipation of interest rate drops coming from investors looking for a new place to invest/save, the more exciting aspect is that it appears the rejuvenation is caused by a more underlying increase in confidence in the entire ecosystem.

Huge institutions like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Paypal and Mastercard have all shown more leniency in involving themselves in the industry.

In another newsletter, we’ll cover another driving factor which is the anticipation of the Bitcoin Exchange-Traded-Funded (ETF) being legalised by the SEC which some believe would be a watershed moment for the industry and despite sounding exceptionally dull and could bring Bitcoin and cryptocurrency more generally to you, me and Dorean up the road.

What does it say about the future?

Things are looking pretty good if you’re invested (literally and figuratively) in crypto at the moment. There is certainly a lot of uncertainty ahead, but some of the most exciting parts of crypto - decentralised currency (no more reliance on big banks and even governments), smart contracts (events like buying a house or a car could be massively streamlined and equally/more secure), and free cross-border payments among many others.

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