BACK TO THE MOON --- by Steve Nadis
Last year, President Bush had a vision: to put a man on the moon. A few days ago, NASA confirmed this vision with a plan for doing just that, putting a man on the moon by 2018. But the moon is, well, doggone far and getting a man (or woman) up there (on there?) is going to be pretty doggone hard, isn't it? But wait a minute? Wasn't some fellow named Armstrong messing around up there (on there?) back in 1969, almost 50 YEARS before NASA's current target? Well, if we could do it once--or actually several times--we should be able to do it again, right? Maybe not. Back in the 1960s, NASA's space program attracted some of the best minds in the country. The agency has come down more than a few pegs since then. But maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to do what we did 50 years before. The key, the experts at NASA say, will be to use old-fashioned technology. In the meantime, "visionary" projects like this will drain money from scientific space missions that everyone knows yield far greater payoff.
But then again nobody cares about my visions. I say maybe we can get an airplane to fly again at Kitty Hawk. We missed the 100-year anniversary (which would have been 2003) but we can always shoot for 2053. Or at least we can dream...
