Is that a light on the Moon!

This is a presentation given by Mr Lesher earlier this year and he has graciously allowed me to put it in my blog for you to enjoy!

Is that a light on the moon!

By Charles Lesher

One night in the not so distant future, Americans will look up to behold lights burning on the darkside of the moon... but whose will they be? I question if America has the tenacity to build a permanent presence on the moon. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are draining our resources leaving very little for anything else and the investment in the infrastructure necessary to create a self-sufficient outpost on the moon is substantial over many years and many governments. Budgets agreed upon in one Congress, are radically altered, or canceled in the next. I fear the first lights on the moon will not be American. We simply do not have the political will to see it through.

Many reasonable and intelligent people ask why should we care? America has enough to worry about with problems right here in front of us. They say that money for space colonization would be better spent feeding the hungry, obtaining medical care for everyone, solving the energy crisis, and a hundred other issues that are without question, very important. I submit that this is a very shortsighted view. Space has the resources not only to make it profitable, but highly desirable, to go there. Solar energy alone could solve the world’s dependence on oil. There are asteroids the size of mountains made of iron and nickel, resources we have not begun to tap and most importantly, elbow room to expand.

Earth is like a potted plant that is becoming root bound. 6.6 billion people share this planet with more arriving every day. I have read predictions that population in 2050 will stabilize around 10 billion. Others say it could exceed 20 billion. While world population skyrockets, oil dependence weakens America even as it triggers climate change and rising sea levels. Where will we find the food, water, and housing for all of these people under such conditions? How will we cope with wars fought over basic necessities? Where can we go to relieve this pressure? Humanity occupies every continent. There are no more New Worlds to explore and claim for our own. Or are there?

Americans should be aware that others are eyeing the moon with lustful intent. China, Japan, India, and the European Union all have aggressive plans to establish a permanent lunar colony sometime in the early ‘20s. Currently, America’s space plan calls for a return mission in 2015 and a permanent base by 2024. Instead of properly funding the effort, the Bush administration has borrowed from Peter to pay Paul, forcing NASA to restructure its internal budget to fund the Presidents directive. Planetary science missions, climate studies, and a host of other valuable and needed projects, find themselves strapped for cash or worse, cancelled entirely. With the situation we find ourselves in, I have grave doubts that America can sustain the funding necessary to put lights on the moon.

As a child, I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. I consumed science fiction paperback novels and was hooked on Star Trek. In the summer of ‘69 nothing seemed impossible and I wanted to be part of humanity’s expansion into the high frontier. I believed it was inevitable. Today, I don’t think it will be Americans turning on the lights of the New World and this failure will mark the end of American leadership. It will be other nations who profit, other people who push the boundaries, others who lead… We will follow…

Here is where I find one glimmer of hope remaining. America is a nation of responders. We allow ourselves to be distracted until something comes along that shakes us out of our lethargy. Only then will we mobilize. It has happened before. In 1957, Americans were cruising on autopilot having won WWII, gotten a handle on the Korea War, and enjoying an economy humming along nicely. Then along came Sputnik, shaking America to its core. That night, Americans looked up to behold a shooting star in the heavens.

To some of them, this was a Russian invasion, an in-your-face threat to their way of life. America responded by not only catching up with the Russians, but in surpassing them. Twelve years after Sputnik, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Those dozen years encompass some of the most vibrant technical growth in the history of science. America still enjoys the fruits of that labor. However, we failed to follow our success and let the achievement pass into history. But if humanity can avoid Armageddon, someday a nation will make the sacrifice and claim Luna for their own.

Until then, I visit the moon everyday in my dreams, writing about people living in a society not yet realized. They face the same evils we face today, religion threatening to consume democracy, an American president who would be king, and a Muslim empire growing increasingly strong and intolerant. They struggle through their lives and fight for their freedoms just as citizens have done throughout history. Writing speculative fiction is my way of realizing my dream, my way of sharing hope for our future.

Charles Lesher is the author of Evolution’s Child, a speculative fiction novel about the near future, available at all major online and walkup outlets. Mr. Lesher holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering and an MS in Materials Science.