Not only was the moon program a marvelous example of doing something because we could, it was also our nation's largest peace-time applied research project. The spin-offs from the moon program form all of the technologies that separate the 2010s from the 1960s.
But I'll tell you a secret - that isn't why Congress funded it or why three presidents supported it. The moon program existed so that we could show the world that a capitalist democracy is better than a communist dictatorship.
That's why we stopped going to the moon early and never returned. We showed that we could do it and the communists gave up. If they had announced that they were going to put a man on Mars, we would be there by now.
NASA's current head, Charles Bolden, caused a stir when he listed the priorities that President Obama gave him.
One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering -- science, math and engineering.
This sounds pretty dumb. What happened to manned spaceflight?
But, after thinking about it I realized that it does not matter. If inspiring Muslims helps fund NASA then that is fine. What matters is the funding.
Oops. NASA is already on an austerity budget. The space shuttle program is being retired after two more flights. Future flights have been outsourced. The return to the moon has been scrapped because we have already been there. The Mars program is underfunded and probably will never get off the ground. None of this is going to inspire anyone to do anything.
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