The movie First Man reminded me of a sci fi story I had read long ago that had a line about how saying “That’s one small step for man…” became the traditional thing to say when going to a new planet for the first time, which then made me think of Mars (the most likely first new planet we step on). So what do you think the first person to step foot on Mars will say at that historic moment?
Neil Armstrong’s Line? (“That’s one smalls step for man, one giant leap for Mankind”)
Something else that is preplanned? (Possibly by NASA or even just the crew in advance)
Something else that is completely off the cuff?
Something in Chinese (because they get there first)
Nuthin’ (because humans will never set foot there)
It’ll be something new, created by a speechwriter for whatever organization (which might be a nation, an international collaboration, or a private company) makes the trip, though expressing basically the same vague sentiments of peace and progress as Armstrong’s line. And like Armstrong, the astronaut delivering will probably have some minor flub in how he says it.
“This Mars Landing is brought to by The Acme Rocket Company. If you want to fly somewhere fast, fly with Acme!” (Or whoever is sponsoring the publicity event.)
“It seemed I was the first one there, and so I was surprised, to see the Martians twist and stomp before my very eyes. They did the Loco-Motion and the Hully Gully too. I couldn’t name a single dance the Martians wouldn’t do.”
“Eeee-eeee-eeeeee
The Martian Hop
Eeee-eeee-eeeeee”
I’m inclined to think that we’ll never go there. I know it sounds like the next logical stepping stone in our horizon, but it would be costly as fuck, not to mention impossible unless (as glee mentions) someone volunteers to die there, and what’s the point anyway when we can land unmanned robots on the planet?