Okay, I have been gone for awhile, so now that I am back and we have a new President, we must be back on track for Mars, right? Let's take a look. How many times is Mars mentioned in President-Elect Obama's Plan for America? I went to his Change.gov and visited the "Technology" section but could not find a single sentence on the Moon or Mars. In fact, I searched the entire site and could not find anything on Mars. Does this mean we are Earth-bound for another generation? This is not clear, but it appears stem cells and patent protection will be more important in the near future than exploring the great unknown. Fortunately, the plan has one section called Invest in the Sciences stating his Plan would "Double federal funding for basic research over ten years, changing the posture of our federal government to one that embraces science and technology." I guess we can fit the space program in there somewhere. I am not sure how that will do against other topics such as addressing the dropout crisis and diverse media ownership, but we shall see.Note: To be fair, in his December 20, 2008 YouTube address, he did use the word "Moon" once, as shown below:
Right now, in labs, classrooms and companies across America, our leading minds are hard at work chasing the next big idea, on the cusp of breakthroughs that could revolutionize our lives. But history tells us that they cannot do it alone. From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new frontier because we had leaders who paved the way: leaders like President Kennedy, who inspired us to push the boundaries of the known world and achieve the impossible; leaders who not only invested in our scientists, but who respected the integrity of the scientific process.
