Another inspirational video has been made to fuel the #penny4nasa movement and once again Neil Degrasse Tyson hits the nail on the head.  I was watching a show on the History Channel the other day called “It came from Space” and was shocked at how much technology came from the moon race alone.  Everything from the oxygen units that firefighters use to thermal blankets to compact electronics are here today because of space.  Unfortunately people take for granted that their iPhone fits in their pocket and don’t really give two shits about how space is funded anymore.

 

I have no doubt that once the old/greedy politicians die off, and the current young/educated minds are calling the shots, we will see government budgets allocated in ways that will help humanity.  But at that time, will it be too late?

Being able to take your grand kids to Mars would be cool, but this goes much deeper.  It’s about dreaming.  What can we as humans accomplish in the short time we have on Earth?  The potential is there, the money is there, the drive is there, but eventually it ends at the stone walled politicians.

Sure, we could wait for Elon Musk and other private organizations to slowly pave the way, but NASA is a wrecking ball of ownage, and if they had the money that they needed, we’d prosper from those innovations for generations to come.

While this really has nothing to do with science fiction, I feel that it’s my duty to continue the spread of this message.  In the age of the internet, every re-tweet, Facebook share, and upvote bring exposure to a cause.  So while we could wait for the old and greedy to die off, I’d much rather steam roll them with sheer numbers that say “we want our money put toward science and technology.”

We stopped dreaming part 1