As the July 20 fortieth anniversary of earthlings' first moon landing approaches, former White House Spokesman Bob Weiner and Policy Analyst Zoe Pagonis urge NASA, "Focus on the dream of traveling to other planets and reverse NASA's satisfaction with the mundane."Weiner and Pagonis assert, "The news for NASA now is a pale comparison to 1969."
"Forty years later, we have to ask, what happened to man and woman on Mars and Venus? By now we thought we'd even reach Pluto. Yet after a few repeat moon missions, we just stopped leaving earth. The man-on-the-moon July 20th 40th Anniversary drives home that NASA's dream has been weak for the forty years since the landing. No one then thought we wouldn't be on Mars, Venus, and even Pluto by now."
"Commuter shuttles to a space station close-in and use of robots have been a sad substitute. It wasn't and isn't all we can do -- we saw that's nonsense with our own eyes. Man on the Moon was the most profound scientific achievement of our lifetimes -- and was too long ago."
"President Obama told shuttle Atlantis astronauts, 'It is a high priority of mine to restore that sense of wonder that space can provide.'
According to Weiner and Pagonis, "Returning to the moon is no longer wonder. We already did that forty years ago; the wonder is gone."
"When our supply of everything from oil to food to water is in peril, shouldn't we be exploring the virtually limitless resources of other planets to see if there are compounds that might be useful beyond our wildest dreams?"
"Russia is poised to beat the U.S. with a plan, Mars 500, just as they did in 1957 when they launched Sputnik and placed Yuri Gagarin in orbit. It took us a decade to catch up. Hopefully we won't have to repeat this. We need a get-there mentality with time frame," Weiner and Pagonis conclude.
Weiner and Pagonis wrote an oped this month in the Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, and Chicago Tribune on "NASA'S WEAK DREAM": http://www.weinerpublic.com/20090706.doc and http://www.weinerpublic.com/20090709.doc .
Source: Robert Weiner Associates
