Visionaries

Froggy has an excellent post (from yesterday) about the 36th anniversary of men (Americans) walking on the Moon for the first time. In commments, Froggy and I touched on something. We are both of the mind that this country needs visionaries from our generation. Men and women who were little kids at the time (Froggy was 11, I was 7) who have the ability to dream and look to the future.

Do you remember how we sat in wild-eyed fascination as Armstrong took his first tentative steps on another world? Do you remember how our teachers would tell us "by the year 2000" we'd have space stations and a Moonbase, at least? Sadly, you see the state of our space program, unable to get into near-Earth orbit with any sort of regularity, let alone back to the Moon. It's time we set new goals for the space program.

1) A new shuttle. One that won't break when someone sneezes.

2) Moonbase. A place to launch further expeditions with far less cost than leaving Earth-proper.

3) MarsPort. The Casablanca of science fiction writers and a stepping stone to the riches in the Asteroid Belt.

4) Do this in 20 years.

That's where our future is, folks. We're using up our natural resources at an astounding rate and we're becoming ever more crowded. Unfortunately, the people in power are all about the short term. Instead of being the trustees of our future, all they think about is raping it. Time for a change, a big one.