Monday, December 8, 2014

Final Project Proposal

The idea behind this project is to bring people together not only as a nation, but also around the world. What is the one thing that the entire world is able to share and see absolutely anywhere? The moon. My idea is to create a monument showing the world coming together as one, on the moon. The United States tends to take claim for having the first man on the moon, but now anyone can be a “man on the moon” through this monument. People won’t physically take steps on the moon, but they can send their piece, their flag.
This idea came to me when Carlos mentioned that we should think out-of-the-box and could even put a monument in outer space. I couldn’t get that out of my head, so that lead me to think of the moon. I had to come up with why I would want to put something on the moon, and all I could think of was the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Armstrong described his experience on the lunar surface as “one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” This ended the Space Race against Russia to get the first man to the moon. These events lead me to think, “what if anyone could go to the moon?” I came up with the flags to show that the moon is neutral ground; no one owns it, even though the US likes to think they do. The flag idea came from the fact that Armstrong placed an American flag on the moon to show that we did it. This way, the entire world can come together as one to put their mark on the moon. This monument shouldn’t be thought of as public or private, it’s more of a commons monument. It’s a common monument because no country or government is in charge of it in any way. There is a sense of a mutual agreement between everyone globally to be involved in this monument.
This monument won’t be just one item but multiple coming together. The flags together will create this monument on the moon as one. The simple act of sending a flag to the moon is part of the monument too. It’s not just something to look at, it’s something everyone can be a part of and participate in. To me, this monument represents the world coming together as one. The moon is neutral ground that the US likes to claim as their own only we don’t really have ownership at all. The moon belongs to everyone is I think is the perfect place for this type of monument.
The location is the moon, obviously, and I chose it simple because I thought it would be interesting to have a monument there. I looked up moon monuments, just to see if there was anything to even mark the fact that men have been on the moon, but there are only monuments on Earth. How crazy would it be if there was a monument on the moon? That would be pretty incredible.  The monument is based more on the interaction than on the visibility. You’re able to send a flag of your choice up to the moon to make your mark just like you are a “man on the moon.” You could see the moon with all the flags from Google Earth, but not just by looking out your window. The flags would be too small to make them visible. The flags will be arranged to look like a smaller version of Earth. So, the countries flags will be placed where their country would be located on Earth, just on the moon.
The monument is improbable because it would cost millions of dollars to do this. One trip alone to the moon is well over a million dollars and to take multiple trips would be outrageous. Also being able to place flags on the moon to stay permanently is questionable. I don’t think they would be able to stay put. There’s also the possibility of country’s not being able to be involved in this monument whether they don’t have Internet access to view the flags. It would even be difficult to get word spread about the monument to the lesser countries. The main countries would have no issue being able to know about the monument, see it and also participate.
This monument is important in my opinion because it shows that the world should come together as one. It is more focused on the moon and the fact that no one in particular actually owns the moon in any way, but you could take the meaning of it as far as bringing the world together. Hopefully, this monument does just that. The public gains multiple things through this monument, I think. They get to be their very own “man on the moon”. Only a few people have ever been to the moon and been able to take steps or place an object up there. With this monument the people get the chance place their flag. Anyone who is involved with this monument benefits by the experience and the feeling of unity with others around the globe.
Various sites that I found say that a trip to the moon today for two passengers will cost them $150 million dollars for one ticket. For this monument if we decided to take one trip to the moon per year and people continued to want to be involved with this monument for 10 years it would cost one billion five hundred million dollars. For this monument if everyone sent a mini country flag to the moon each flag would cost around $2. So if all 7 billion people in the world chose to send a flag to the moon it would cost $14 billion dollars. Now, if I add up the $150 million dollars for one trip to the moon plus the $14 billion dollars for every person around the globe to send a flag, it would cost fourteen billion, one hundred fifty million dollars. Even if all 316.1 million people (as of 2013) from the United States sent a flag to the moon it would cost seven hundred eighty-two million two hundred thousand dollars. Any way that you try to combine it, this monument would be a multimillion-dollar project.
This project doesn’t exactly have a definite timeline. This is something that could last as long as it wants to. Over the years, more and more people could send flags to the moon and participate in the “man on the moon” experience if they choose to. This does not have a for sure start and finish date attached to it.




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