Giant Leaps ~ Stepping Beyond Our Cradle Earth!

MIT's Giant Leaps celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was centrally about looking forward and inspiring what's next. We all think that Armstrong's Giant Leap for Mankind was one among many on our pathway to a better future! And it really should be one of several steps leading us ever further -- as Tsiolkovsky so poetically put it -- Beyond Our Cradle! In the meantime, let's remember how totally glorious an achievement Man on the Moon was 40 years ago! Absolutely epic, from launch, to walkabout, to safe return... And R.I.P. Uncle Walter who was as blown away about this as everyone else! And btw, it's completely irrelevant if we are "alone" or if there's lots of intelligent ETs in the Universe. We need to get Beyond Our Cradle to preserve our species, allow for population expansion, supply raw materials, and purely for the joy of exploration and discovery! That pathway may entail robonauts and certainly other transformative innovations but most especially requires us all to prosper and thrive and commit financial resources to humanity's ultimate bet, investing in further Giant Leaps!