In JFK's moon speech what does he mean by "and do the other things"?

Question

In the famous speech by John F. Kennedy given at Rice university, JFK says "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard"

What is he referring to by "the other things"?

Answer 1

The things he was referring to in the previous parts of the speech. He referred to the explorations and accomplishments of previous generations, and then asked:

why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

Answer 2

He may be referring to earlier mentioned items in the speech, but 'the other things' are the things that we do to advance the human race.

It's easy to keep life as it is, status quo. It's hard to innovate. The US has seen the costs of doing the 'other thing' with the losses in the space program. But the cost of NOT doing the other things are greater.

Taking a risk is the 'other thing.' Saying you will do something by a certain time even though there is no clear solution available at the time. This mandate pushed people out of their comfort zone of "Maybe, but is it worth the risk?" and into, "OK well if we are going to make that deadline, what would we have to do." This spurred outside the box thinking that made it happen. It is sad that we haven't had more of those mandates with successes that the Apollo space program was back then.

There are important factors that have kept the mandates from happening the same way. Kennedy was pushing people out of one comfort zone and into another. The climate was much different then than it is today. We are scared some by terrorism, but we are an 800 pound gorilla swatting at flies in today's climate. Back then, the US was second to the USSR. We were afraid they were going to put nuclear missles in space and aim them at us and then tell us to dance. JFK in his speech pushed the US into the comfort zone where, if we succeeded, we would have swagger and be able to make the USSR quake. Which we ended up doing.

Landing on the moon was a victory the US needed to remain a viable superpower. We benefit from that confort today as the sole major superpower on earth.

I feel that for George Bush's mandates to be as successful, he will have to be martyred in office. That won't happen, so it will be interesting to see if we make it to Mars.

Answer 3

Things yet defined such as the space shuttle, travel to mars, permanent space station. He is simply leaving the door open to all things (and so he can claim credit 40 years later solidifying his unfounded legacy).