We have sacrificed seven brave explorers and billions in taxpayers’ dollars on our un-focused and vacillating “on again – off again” space effort. NASA and its cartel of large aerospace companies that dominate the American space “market” are trapped. They have traded leadership and accomplishment for institutional survival and the extraction of a paltry annuity from aged technology. Are they still capable of leading us to the high frontier?
NASA has expanded our knowledge of the universe. This is a worthy endeavor. However, NASA, if it is to remain relevant, must redirect its energies to goals that produce tangible benefits for America. As a taxpayer with a vision of mankind in space, I am more interested in “getting out there” than studying it from afar. The universe will be there when we get there. All the big questions will still get answered.
The billions spent on exploration and pure science must be redirected to developing space faring capacity. NASA must focus on technology leading to cost effective, safe and robust commercial access to space. It should push deep space propulsion. And, explore lunar industrialization as a platform for further space development. Its efforts in science should enhance our ability to operate in space, live on the moon and exploit the asteroids.
America is engaged in the second phase of its first “Energy War” in our “liberation” of Iraq. Our country is dependent on the finite residual “goo” of this planet’s long dead primordial life to fuel our economy. This dependence has driven us into a headlong collision with Islam’s faltering lurch towards modernity. The results have been disastrous for both.
Why not change the paradigm? We should be considering our all-in costs for imported energy when we evaluate the cost of energy from space. After all, we spend at least $100 billion per year on the military’s ability to secure our sources of oil. Much of this is spent on the current consumption of a standing military and the rapidly obsolesced technology of war. Let’s move from the consumption of resources to the access to resources and the creation of long-term capital for America.
NASA should focus its efforts on using space to solve the big problems here on this planet, satisfying the economic needs of America and making America more secure. By investing its billions to accelerate our cost effective access to space, NASA will help create new markets for America.
America will be the dominant player in these markets. America will grow economically in new directions with few competitors while replacing older industries and jobs now lost to other countries. NASA’s mission should be America’s total spectrum dominance of space as a commercial resource and venue. In turn, America will retain its global role as a technological, commercial and moral leader.
NASA can be America’s premiere economic development agency. Its mindset and investments must be redirected in partnership with the burgeoning space entrepreneurs of this country. Once, the self-sustaining critical mass of private enterprise in space is achieved, NASA can return to a mission of science and exploration.
Mars can wait. The last thing we need is a grand mission that consumes resources, dilutes our focus and distracts the public. However, where our economy goes, America and mankind will soon follow.
