Mileage tougher than space goal?

Let me see if I understand this.

Back in the '60s, President Kennedy called for an effort to send a manned vessel to the moon and return to earth safely. His challenge was to achieve this in a 10-year period, "the end of the decade."

Now, our Congress, in reacting to the gas and fuel crisis, has passed an energy bill that will require the automakers to increase their industry wide vehicle fuel efficiency to 35 mpg by 2020.

So they "challenged" the automakers to increase the fuel efficiency of cars by 10 mpg and to achieve this in 12 years when it took less than 10 years to reach the moon.

It seems that it was easier to meet the challenge of unknown space travel than it is to meet the challenge of fuel-efficient cars.

Bob Kusek

Arlington Heights