Got moon?

As backwards as we may think the Chinese are, being communists and all, they may have a colony on the moon in the not-too-distant future. While being the undisputed "winner" of the space race of the Kennedy era by landing a man on the moon, the U.S. space program has been largely ignored and its budget drastically cut since then.

China, on the other hand, has plans beyond the milestone of a moon landing. In 2001, the Chinese Sheenzhou 2 spacecraft had carried a monkey, a dog, a rabbit, and some snails into space; they have a 90 percent success rate launching dozens of satellites; and are hoping for a moon landing by 2010. According to the BBC quoting Chinese officials, the ultimate goal of all this is "to set up a permanent base on the moon in order to make use of its rich resources."

I can’t say that I know what "rich resources" the Chinese think the moon is holding, but if they ever start a colony up there, I’ll be the first to sign up to learn Mandarin to increase my chances of going along.

I remember when we, in the U.S., had aspirations of colonizing other planets. Ten years ago, the highlight of Disney World for me was a ride that went through NASA’s plans for the colonization of the moon. It was all going to be done by the magic year 2000. So what do we aspire to now besides not being attacked by Muslim extremists and fixing our economic recession? What happened to all those plans? Did we find out it was impossible or did we just stop dreaming?

Kennedy’s dead, but our space program and our dreams of the possibilities don’t have to be. A colony on the moon in the 2010s is no less likely than putting a man on the moon was in the 1960s. The people in a country with a per capita income of about $2,700 are on their way to the moon. Where are the people of our country going, besides Iraq?