High-tech entrepreneur Henk Rogers is proposing that a lunar base be built, tested and eventually developed on the moon from Hawaii, an extremely ambitious goal that Rogers said can be used to fuel development of a local aerospace industry.

Rogers, who is chairman of the board for the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, made his proposal during a panel discussion Tuesday at the state Capitol as part of the 2016 Hawaii Aerospace Summit.

Rogers said the PISCES initiative has been surviving from year to year on “the crumbs” of the aerospace business, and “my belief is that we shouldn’t be the followers. … We’re tired of being the followers in this. We have the ability to be the leaders in this.” PISCES is a state-funded aerospace center that is trying to position Hawaii as a leader in space exploration.

He compared the moon-base initiative to President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 proposal to send an American to the moon by the end of that decade, a challenge made to the nation at a time when the technology did not yet exist to make such a journey.

“Make no mistake about it, humanity is going back to the moon, and we might as well be the ones to take humanity there,” Rogers said.

The two-day aerospace summit is being coordinated by the Office of Aerospace Development, which is part of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Speakers include Gov. David Ige, former Gov. George Ariyoshi and Capt. Vincent Johnson, commander of the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.

The summit participants will develop a five-year plan to advance the industry, and state House Vice Speaker John Mizuno predicted the effort will be well received by the public.

In recent years public protests have blocked or stalled ventures such as the Hawaii Superferry and the Thirty Meter Telescope project, but Mizuno told the audience, “I don’t think you’re going to have any negativity or demonstrations against aerospace in Hawaii.”

He reminded listeners of Hawaiians’ tradition of exploration that first brought them to the islands centuries ago, and said space exploration will be like a “second voyage.” Hawaii has a “golden opportunity” today to develop the industry because both the governor and state lawmakers are supportive, he said.

To jump to the front of the aerospace pack, Rogers proposed that Hawaii adopt when he called a “B-HAG,” which stands for a “big, hairy, audacious goal.” He cited the early Polynesian explorers who navigated by the stars to make the dangerous voyage to Hawaii, and asked: “Where does Polynesian voyaging go next?

“We’ve looked at every place on this planet. The next target is going to be the moon,” he said. “So, my vision is that we will build a moon base on the moon, and we start doing this on the Big Island, small scale, we work out all the technologies that are necessary, and we launch robots using small satellite launch capability” to build the lunar facility.

Rogers, founder of the nonprofit Blue Planet Foundation, which promotes clean energy, said he plans to seek access to “a little piece” of the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island as the site for a lunar base prototype.

“We’ll need to build a full-size moon base so that we can actually walk around and stay in it and understand what that feels like,” he said. The effort will also help scientists and engineers learn how to build what they need using materials available on the moon because the materials on Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are similar to those found on the moon, Rogers said.

When asked what is needed to carry out the moon-base plan, Rogers replied: “Willpower.

“The money will come. First of all you have to have the vision, and then you have to have the willpower,” he told the audience.

Mike Jones, who works for the Office of Naval Research as science adviser to the U.S. Pacific Command, said the state is “almost uniquely capable” among locations in the U.S. for launching small satellites, which is now the focus of the aerospace industry.

He said the state also has a great deal of engineering capability at the University of Hawaii at Manoa that can be brought to bear on expanding the local aerospace industry, and said the Pacific Missile Range on Kauai may be a resource that could support launching small satellites in a public-private partnership.

Ige said in an interview that the aerospace summit is designed to bring together the public and private sectors to “talk about what is the next step. So, I’m excited about the opportunity, and we’ll see what programs they come up with.”

As for Mizuno’s prediction that the aerospace effort will advance with little controversy, Ige said there is already a great deal of aerospace activity in Hawaii.

For example, he cited the Pacific Missile Range on Kauai, where “I think the commander at the range has embraced the community, and the community has embraced the facility. We see a synergy in that regards that we can leverage.”

“A lot of the activities are compatible. They’re environmentally friendly. The types of jobs that would be associated with them are not a strain on the environment. So I think from that perspective, I can see a lot of alignment with the opportunities that aerospace can provide,” he said.

The aerospace summit continues at the state Capitol today.