Apollo 14's Mitchell Takes Space Policy Position for the Moon and Private Sector

Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a moon walker of Apollo 14, penned an article Sunday published in the TC Palm (Beach, Florida) newspaper in which he states, " I urge President Barack Obama to continue moon missions as an important flight destination for testing next-generation rocket propulsion systems" while he commends the president "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."

Compared to his former Apollo astronaut colleagues, Mitchell takes the more middle ground by not ceding the moon to near-term exploration but supporting propulsion innovation and the involvement of the commercial space launch sector.

As founder and chief science officer of Quantrek, Dr. Mitchell collaborates 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. He is a "strong proponent of a manned mission to Mars, and see moon missions as a prerequisite for testing spacecraft propelled by advanced propulsion systems, such as zero-point energy that can travel to Mars and deeper into space."

In Dr. Mitchell's 1996 book, The Way of the Explorer, the lunar astronaut developed a "dyadic" model of paired opposites-mind/matter, life/death, etc.-that he also covers here and that owes as much to quantum physics' wave/particle duality as to Taoism's yin/yang. Mitchell isn't afraid to go out on a limb; his contention that the universe "intended" to evolve to higher levels, for example, goes against mainstream Western science, [audio interview].

Meanwhile, Apollo lunar era astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Rusty Schweickart have been supportive of the new presidential space policy to advance humans to an asteroid while Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan, (these two appearing twice on Capitol Hill) and Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt have been among the most outspoken critics of the president's new policy space and destination.

Lunar Apollo astronauts Cernan, Harrison, Walter Cunningham, Alan Bean, Al Worden, Jim McDivitt, Fred Haise, Jim Lovell, Charlie Duke, Frank Borman, and Dick Gordon were among those signing a letter to the president objecting to the discontinuance of the lunar Constellation Ares-1 and Ares-V program.

Absent the space policy debate has been veteran lunar and shuttle astronaut John Young, now retired, who has in the past been supportive of new technologies and asteroid surveys.