Exoconsciousness

By Letters To The Editor For Friday, May 14 - Dr Edgar Mitchell

Posted: 7:07 p.m. Thursday, May 13, 2010

As an Apollo 14 astronaut and the sixth man to walk on the moon, I urge President Obama to continue moon missions as an important flight destination for testing next-generation rocket propulsion systems. I am a strong proponent of a manned mission to Mars, and see moon missions as prerequisite for testing spacecraft propelled by advanced propulsion systems such as zero-point energy that can travel to Mars and deeper into space.

I commend Mr. Obama's decision to strengthen the private sector's role in the space program. The intellectual energy of scientists and inventors as well as private entrepreneurs will catapult Earth's people into a space-faring race. As founder and chief science officer of Quantrek (www.quantrek.org), I collaborate with progressive scientists and experts in the fields of propulsion systems as well as other applications of frontier science emerging from discovery of zero-point energy.

Like Mr. Obama, I agree that global collaboration and peaceful exploration are fundamental directives of our space program. I commend his refocusing of the space program from adversarial to a global collaborative effort. As a Florida resident for many years, I applaud Mr. Obama's commitment to job creation and retention in the public sector. I am pleased with his commitment to a $6 billion budget increase for NASA, which would add 2,500 jobs along the Space Coast plus 10,000 jobs nationwide.

My relationship with NASA spans 44 years, When President Obama announced that "nobody is more committed to manned space flight, to human space exploration of space than I am," I was relieved. I felt the cumulative excitement of every child whose dream is to become an astronaut.

DR. EDGAR MITCHELL

Lake Worth

Editor's note: Dr. Mitchell will be at Cape Canaveral today for the launch of the space shuttle. Two more launches are scheduled this year before the shuttle program is discontinued.