Imagine a future where “moonshots” are part of our everyday reality. In this future, shipping no longer uses environmentally damaging Styrofoam but instead an organic mushroom-based material. Things like meat and leather can be created in a laboratory, limiting the need for environmentally harmful animal slaughterhouses, or tanning and garment factories that can endanger workers.
In this future, astronauts in orbit 3D-print the materials they need while onboard their spacecraft. And imagine that funding for these innovations comes not from Silicon Valley venture capital, eccentric billionaires or maverick corporations, but instead from the United States government, which has already invested in these moonshot technologies and is helping to make them a reality. And that’s just the beginning.
