To the Moon, Alice!

That was Ralph Kramden's cry in the Honeymooners, when Alice made him come down
to earth from his imaginary get-rich deals, and he threatened to punch her "To the Moon". Jackie Gleason played the role superbly, and Alice, his wife, knew it
was an empty threat and shrugged it off, going about her business keeping the
marriage afloat.

The United States is about to stop going to the moon, or even to the space station which we pioneered, but without an Alice to keep for us an even minimal role in space travel and exploration. We will shortly close out the NASA shuttle flights.
The rationale given is that we will now concentrate our resources on an exploratory flight to Mars. As did Alice, we know an empty threat when we see one. Mars will
remain unexplored by us for decades to come. As a profligate nation, we no longer
have the resources to dream great dreams and do great things.

We will henceforth be hiring Russians to taxi our astronauts and supplies to
and from the space station. They will charge whatever the traffic will bear, and
then some, because they will have the monopoly on lift capability. Meanwhile we
will continue to dissipate our resources on pointless wars, going further into
hock to China and the Oil dictators. The benefits that flow from space travel science
will accrue to Russia and China. We will learn the expensive lessons that come from
trying to change behaviors in people who abhor change.

While all of this is taking place, our Senators are playing Gotcha games with our
future. Would we could hire the Russians to send them all to Mars, tomorrow!