Long Time Coming

President Trump has signed a directive to NASA to send men back to the moon and eventually, Mars. It has been a long time coming. Man hasn’t been to the moon since 1972, and Mars is a gleam in the eye of space adventurers. The directive will mean little without money. Sans funds, the document is little more than a publicity stunt. It will take multi-billions to return to the moon and many more billions to reach Mars and return safely. NASA hasn’t had that kind of cash in decades. It has been reduced to unmanned probes. That hasn’t been bad. We have learned more about the solar system from instrument packages than we could have known with humans. But, it is time to have a presence on the moon as a place to understand the deep complexities of space and its effects on the human body. What we learn on the moon might get us to Mars but to little after that. The solar system is hostile to life but for earth.