The United States is facing a major crisis in terms of national security and economic security, because we simply do not have enough qualified scientists, technologist, engineers, and mathematicians, and our work force is falling further and further behind the world labor forces in readiness to apply skills in a technologically changing world.

Many organizations and government agencies are focusing on the academic changes that are necessary to address these challenges, but changes in academic standards, policies and funding will not be sufficient. Ultimately, the quality of our scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians will also be determined by experience. Further, interest and passion in these fields are driven by the ability to experiment, innovate, and explore. Through experimentation comes discovery, and discovery can drive innovation and economic opportunity. Very few areas of experimentation can embrace and cover the wide disciplines of all fields of science, engineering, technology, and mathematics. Space exploration and research is one of the few fields that can embrace the capabilities of almost all of these disciplines in one field of work. Getting access to space as a laboratory, though, is even a greater challenge. The costs and technological capabilities have been huge, and the abilities to access space and our upper atmosphere as a laboratory have been primarily limited to defense organizations and government institutions to date.

Similar to the computer industry, which started its roots in the mainframe computer industry, predominately owned and operated by large defense and government institutions, the technology and costs to access space have dropped substantially enough in recent years to be afforded by civilians and private citizens. Just as the microprocessor enabled early adopters in the personal computer industry, solid propellant and microelectronics and communications technology and powerful computers now enable the common man to afford to fly into space and explore.

The Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation is an non-profit 501(C)3  educational foundation which provides educational and research resources for the purposing of granting support and competitive prizes to drive innovation and education focused on civilian space flight and space exploration.