"If they can put a man on the moon...

...why can't they fix that pothole?!" Surely you've heard a comment along those lines, noting the apparent disconnect between the pinnacle of our technological abilities on one hand and our embarrassing underachievement on the other. The one constant in these lines is the identification of the moon landing as the peak of humanity's accomplishments. You might argue that other milestones better represent the best of our technological abilities -- maybe computers, or the Large Hadron Collider -- but I think it's hard to debate the primacy of the moon landing in terms of its society-wide scale, its sustained effort, and its ambition. I was listening to an interview with the great science historian James Burke the other day, and he too points to the moon landing as the technological milestone of our species.

But isn't it a little sad that the most-cited peak of human history happened almost 40 years ago? What do we as a space-faring people have to show for ourselves over the last four decades? Technological advancement is a one-way street, so we most certainly have the know-how and ability to push beyond the moon and expand our foothold in space -- it's the political (and by association public) will that is lacking. We remain in space more because we can, and less because we want to explore new frontiers.

The last time we were jolted from complacency with regard to human exploration was when President Kennedy challenged the country to get to the Moon (and back) within a decade. This was before we had even put a man in space at all, I might add. This notion sparked something, and a groundswell of enthusiasm and hard work took us forward. The inspirational power of Kennedy's challenge and the power of his vision in making the whole thing happen cannot be overstated.



All right, I'm finally getting to my point. I just got off of a conference call with Barack Obama. Ok, that sounds a little grandiose: by conference call, I mean I listened to him speak to thousands of Americans living abroad for 20 minutes. Obama is succeeding largely because of his inspirational message and his embodiment of hope, and these characteristics have led to many comparisons to JFK. But the two men could not be more different with respect to their visions for space exploration. Obama is in fact the least ambitious of the remaining three candidates in his space policy. While McCain and Clinton would carry on with Bush's vision to return humans to the Moon and develop a new space vehicle, Obama would postpone the entire project for 5 years! After these 5 years, the space shuttle would already have been retired and the new launch vehicle that is currently in the works will not have gotten past the drawing board; in effect, we wouldn't have a reliable human space program at all.

For someone who clearly understands the power of ideas and inspiration, I am surprised and disappointed that Obama fails to see the power of the space program. Hopefully he will prove to be a more conventional politician and fail to keep his ill-conceived promise.