[Q&A] Landing on Venus, Neutron Stars Going Boom, Shape of the Oort Cloud

Candidate for the Q&A show: Given the recent worry about China beating the US back to the moon, with some critical elements of Artemis III potentially being years late, what could NASA actually do to manage the situation/risk? Blue Origin's offerings are presumably ready later than SpaceX. And a new offering, even a NASA-built one, seems longer than both. Right now, is the only realistic and effective option to aid SpaceX with urgency? And investigate ways to accelerate Blue Origin, so they're ready in the event of a major SpaceX delay?

I started "The Mote in God's Eye," by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle and its incredible. It was published in 1974 and is amazing how much it resonates with modern sci-fi and scientific concepts. There's a scene with a fairly modern concept of a solar sail powered by insanely powerful lasers. People have "pocket computers". There are some "gimmes" but they're based on theoretical concepts like wormholes, etc. But it reads like a book published in the 70s. Really cool and interesting to read.