Column: Is there a hut or house on the moon?

According to a publication entitled, “Our Space,” the media channel of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), China's Yutu 2 rover has spotted a mysterious object described as a "hut" or "house" on the far side of the moon. This information was generated from a recent log of the lunar rover's activities.

When I first heard of this, I mentioned it to my wife and said, “There really is a place on the moon where ‘The Man’ lives.

She then offered two other alternative inhabitants: Alice from the Jackie Gleason show, “The Honeymooners.” He was always saying, “To the moon, Alice” as he clenched his fist and pretended to hit her.

Of course, “to the moon, Alice” is now politically incorrect, misogynistic, and totally inappropriate as either a reference or a joke. It seemed pretty darn funny back in the 1960s when the New York City bus driver would yell it at his wife. That was especially because she always ignored him as an overweight buffoon.

The other alternative was that it might be where Jimmy Hoffa is living.

The Jimmy Hoffa idea probably doesn’t have legs either because he would have had to have been shipped there on one of our lunar expeditions. Instead of “One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind,” it might have been “One small step for man, and one giant leap for the mob.” I’m thinking there’s a better chance Jimmy ended up in the concrete at Yankee Stadium.

In retrospect, the Chinese space program effort is indicative a lot of challenges currently faced by the United States. While we were spending trillions on non-winnable wars, the Chinese were building an infrastructure that is phenomenal. They also carefully took advantage of our discoveries, inventions, and intellectual property and made them their own. As they also contribute to infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa and beyond, China is emerging as a world leader.

The fact that Yutu 2 found the cube-shaped object while traveling across the Von Kármán crater during lunar day 36 of its mission is just the beginning. The Chinese rover landed on the far side of the moon in January 2019. Since then, it has been sending back images of the house/hut on the horizon. Although the rover is only about 262 feet away from the site, it is expected to take another two and a half or three months to reach it.

Here’s where truth in advertising comes into play. The folks at CNSA declared that the term hut or house is just being used as a descriptive name as opposed to an actual house or hut. It might in fact just be a rock or boulder that was “excavated by some type of impact event.” You know, some asteroid might have caused it.

So, even if Jimmy Hoffa or Alice Kramden are not living in a house on the far side of the moon, China has made some real progress in their space program. They launched three astronauts in October to staff their own space station for a six-month stay. Their goal was to set records for the length of time spent in space by Chinese astronauts. They’ve also sent a rover to Mars.

As the United States is being pulled apart by the savage capitalism that feeds separation of our blue and red tribes, we can’t achieve unity from even one party to support a modest rebuilding of our country, there must be laughter and celebration in places like Russia and China.

It seems like it’s once again time to have one of those exceptional emotional moments that will force us, once again, to unify so that we can get together to get things done again.

Heck, the way things are currently going, I wouldn’t be surprised if the rover finally reached that hut, and they discovered it is the Communist party house.

Nick Jacobs of Windber is a healthcare consultant and author of the blog healing hospitals.com

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Nick Jacobs column about China finding a hut or house on the moon