Supply Chain

What's Wrong with Going Back to the Moon?

Feb. 9, 2012

Five hundred years from now, our descendants will likely recognize walking on the Moon as this generation's greatest accomplishment.

While harnessing the atom and building the computer may come close, the Apollo moon missions will define the 20th Century as Columbus' discoveries did the 15th and Newton's the 16th.

In this context, it is perplexing- and disappointing- why Newt Gingrich's recent idea to colonize the Moon was dismissed by so many as desperate politics, and others as down right loony.

While Candidate Gingrich's proposal may be "out there", it raises an important issue that deserves serious consideration:

What should be the goals of America when it comes to future space exploration and development?

With the retirement of the Space Shuttles, and our only way now of getting to the International Space Station being a hitched ride with the Russians, America's space program is in a funk to be sure.

Our past success in space and its importance for our future merit a discussion worthy of a people who made humankind's greatest journey a reality.

About the Author

Andrew R. Thomas Blog | Associate Professor of Marketing and International Business

Andrew R. Thomas, Ph.D., is associate professor of marketing and international business at the University of Akron; and, a member of the core faculty at the International School of Management in Paris, France.

He is a bestselling business author/editor, whose 23 books include, most recently, American Shale Energy and the Global Economy: Business and Geopolitical Implications of the Fracking Revolution, The Customer Trap: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake in Business, Global Supply Chain Security, The Final Journey of the Saturn V, and Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service and Safety.

His book The Distribution Trap was awarded the Berry-American Marketing Association Prize for the Best Marketing Book of 2010. Another work, Direct Marketing in Action, was a finalist for the same award in 2008.

Andrew is founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Security and a regularly featured analyst for media outlets around the world.

He has traveled to and conducted business in 120 countries on all seven continents.