If energy is everything and empowers the world, then rocks and minerals are the stuff that is the foundation of civilization as we know it.

These diverse and unique materials are what we all form into things that are the physical expressions of our creative imaginations, and the building blocks with which we paint humanity and experience life.

Therefore, a critical question is how do we maintain supplies of needed rocks and minerals, and the elements they contain, when many are not in abundant supply or are nonrenewable due to either their uniqueness, their scattered distribution or their noneconomical accessibility in the Earth’s crust near the surface. Well, that is the role of exploration and geoscientists to discover and locate more deposits to meet our needs.

As we have all been hearing and reading about lately, artificial intelligence (AI) may be a more powerful tool than we think as its programming algorithms evolve over the next decade. AI is especially good in pattern recognition and correlation interpretation of massive data sets such as remote sensing assays or spectral image analyses. So, the next administration&rsquos efforts with the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed up by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have hinted at employing AI to root out patterns of wasteful spending across the governmental landscape and map all the areas of ineffectiveness therein.

Similarly, if AI can trace, track and assess dollars and consumption patterns (either needed or needless), then elements on a compositional three-dimensional grid are just as applicable to such algorithms. Hence exploration of the Earth&rsquos surface, moons, nearby planets (like Mars) and asteroids in our solar system for all the minerals and materials we need is not far-fetched. Once critical resources are systematically identified, then accessing, extracting and delivering them to where they are needed would be the next logical steps.

We would likely employ autonomous AI-driven robotics for mining and processing along with unmanned transportation systems (especially in remote and hazardous environments such as outer space or deep below our Earth’s surface where people cannot safely or economically operate).

I believe that the United States needs another collective mega-goal project that enables and uses everyone in our country. We did it for WWII, the Atomic Revolution, the Space Race and the Cold War. We have collectively done nothing on a grand scale since these monumental achievements.

I think the next administration could set a goal to put a man on Mars and asteroids to begin exploring them … and to prove that we can. However, the indirect benefits for all of us would ultimately evolve our technologies, tools and understanding about where more resources exist, and how we could begin to utilize them for the benefit of all society.

It is no longer the old saying of “Go West, Young Man,” but rather the collective goal of truly reaching for the stars, and thereby ensuring the survival of humanity by spreading ourselves into the cosmos. n