Space - 30 years into the future

A prognostication is made of the topics which a NASA administrator might be addressing at an AIF convention held 30 years from the date of the present work (1987), in 2017. The administrator is envisioned as discussing progress in SETI research to date, as well as outlining a follow-on program to SETI which would conduct its searches from the far side of the moon; if some form of verifiable contact with extraterrestrial intelligence had been made by 2017, the hypothetical administrator is seen as arguing for an effort to respond to that communication.