Announcing the Stephen L. Thompson Lunar Exploration Prize

I am a big support of returning to the moon.  I even wrote an ebook about it tilted, “The Moon Before Mars: Why returning to the moon makes more sense than rushing off to Mars.” I also wrote a collection of short stories set on the moon – “A Cabin Under a Cloudy Sea and other stories” – as a way to help build interest, and I’m working on a second collection, “Travels Beyond Imagination,” to hopefully be out in early 2018.  But I’ve decided to take another step to help foster our return to the moon, and that’s to set up the Stephen L. Thompson Lunar Exploration Prize.

The Stephen L. Thompson Lunar Exploration Prize will award the next human – regardless of nationality – who walks on the moon $13.  And I’ll give them a certificate.  When it comes time to reward them, I’ll find some certificate template online and make one.  The $13 is symbolic of them being the thirteenth human – after Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shephard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt – to walk on the moon.  Now I know that compared to the budget of a moon mission $13 is … well, nothing, but the whole idea of this is the spirit of rewarding those who take us into the future.

Thoughts on the female Doctor

I’m okay with it.  And as long as they don’t overplay it, I’ll continue to be okay with it.  For example, if they’re smart, once she’s done regenerating she might touch her chest and say, “Well, that’s different,” but then shrug and go on with whatever the situation is.  And if she runs into anyone who says, “I thought you were a man,” and all she replies is, “People change.” If that’s all the attention they call to the fact, great.  As long as every episode isn’t “I am Woman, hear me roar,” as everyone bemoaning the death of Doctor Who assumes will happen, the show will continue. 

What will be interesting is if they do a story set in, say the 16th century, but instead of the people listening to what this Doctor has to say they just dismiss this odd woman.  So there is chance for social commentary.

Grab a free copy of “The Moon Before Mars”

This week, to mark the forty-eighth anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, you can grab a free copy of my Kindle ebook “The Moon Before Mars: Why returning to the moon makes more sense than rushing off to Mars” from now through Friday, July 21.  I see returning to the moon and setting up a permanent base/colony as our best bet for a foundation to build on making humanity a spacefaring civilization.