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When I think of our golden era of space exploration, that was a decade, that was perhaps, turbulent
in a century. We all felt threatened from the cold war. There was a hot war going on,
losing a hundred service men a week, the civil rights movement, assassinations, and the like.
The landscape was poisoned that decade. Yet, one of the jewels in the American crown, was
our exploration of space. Audacious visions have the power to alter mind- states... to
change assumptions of what is possible. And when a nation allows its self to dream big,
these dreams prevail in the citizens ambitions. During the Apollo era, you didn't need government
programs trying to convince people that doing science and engineering was good for the country.
It was self-evident. Fully funded missions to Mars and anywhere beyond low-Earth orbit
would reboot America's capacity to innovate as no other force in society can. We've got
symptoms in society today. We're going broke, we're mired in debt, we don't have as many
scientists as we need, and jobs are going over seas. I assert that these are not isolated
problems, but they're the collective consequence, the absence of ambition, that consumes you
when you stop having dreams. Epic space adventures plant seeds of economic growth, because doing
what's never been done before is intellectually seductive, whether or not we deem it practical.
And when you conduct those exercises, innovation follows just as day follows night. And when
you innovate, you lead the world, you keep your jobs, and concerns over tariffs and trade
regulations evaporate. The call for this adventure would echo loudly across society, and down
the educational pipeline. The spending portfolio of the United States currently, allocates
50 times as much money to social programs and education than it does NASA. The half
a penny budget NASA receives, if you double it, I assert we can transform a country from
a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its
20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow. How much would you pay to launch our economy?
How much would you pay for the universe?