Conquer Outer Space

Over 30 years ago John F. Kennedy challenged America to land men on the moon in under a decade, and the nation delivered. Since then the American space program, controlled by NASA, has devolved into an inefficient and uninspiring bureaucracy. Unmanned probes have taught us much about our universe, but America's interest in space has declined significantly because of a lack of human adventure. Humans are interested in seeing humans in space, forever pushing the limit of our frontiers. Robots don't excite us as they lack humanity.

Since the Apollo program ended, humans have never again left low-Earth orbit. Weve been flying in circles around our globe doing research in massive laboratories while public interest has continued to evaporate. The only times NASA makes headlines, it seems, is when tragedy strikes, as seen with Challenger and Columbia.

The purpose of this petition is not to destroy NASA or to decry the work theyve done. Rather we, the undersigned, wish to redirect NASA towards a course that will reignite the old national flame that helped put America on top. Millions of students, inspired by Apollo successes, grew up hoping to one day carry the torch of discovery. But sadly this is not a feasible option for our nations youth.

The time has come to bring NASA back into the spotlight with missions that will again inspire and challenge our nation and, consequently, the whole world. We want NASA to expand the reach of humanity beyond planet Earth. We first want to establish a permanent manned presence on the cheapest nearby satellite, our own moon. The cost of establishing a manned presence on the moon is significantly lower than constructing a station in-orbit since supplies can be manufactured on the lunar surface. And the benefits of a permanent establishment on another celestial body are painfully obvious to anyone who knows what happened to the dinosaurs.

From the moon we want NASA to leap forward to Mars to continue on our solar adventure. Permanent establishments on two planets and one moon will mark the beginning of humanitys bold and everlasting expansion beyond the cradle of life on Earth and out into our universe. Mankind will finally become a spacefaring society. This can all happen within our lifetimes. We simply need someone to challenge us to do it.