[Private] Enterprise: Going Where No One Has Gone Before
In a conversation with the Mars Curiosity team at NASA, US President Barack Obama asked them to call him if they find aliens. Later on he said:
It’s really what makes us best as a species – the curiosity we have, yearning to discover, the pushing boundaries of knowledge.
But these sentiments don't jive with his proposed 2013 budget, which includes drastic cuts to NASA funding. In his opinion, government-funded space research and exploration (even with its valuable tie-ins with military advancement) should not be the government's concern. Despite the obvious advantages to the economy and defense, space is just not a priority.
But Obama has badly misread the landscape. The world is abuzz with space news:
Our recent heightened fascination with the great, vast blackness might be because we are tired of the incessant flow of depressing news, like failing economies, wars and conflict. I think we want to see what people can achieve, what challenges we can conquer. We want to witness the victory of human intellect over nature. We want to bask in the success of brave pioneering heroes like Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong and Felix Baumgartner. This is the "hope" that Obama promised in his 2008 election campaign, but something he intends to rip out of the hands of the American people with his proposed cuts to the NASA budget.
There's another reason not to cut the NASA budget. The Washington Post reported in July 2012:
One way or another, my grandchildren will likely take interplanetary travel for granted, even if the in-flight literature is in Chinese.
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But Obama has badly misread the landscape. The world is abuzz with space news:
- the Curiosity mission to Mars (Aug 2012)
- the death of Neil Armstrong (Aug 2012)
- the international space station (Sep 2012)
- the retirement of the Space Shuttle Endeavor (Sep 2012)
- amazing images beamed back from Voyager 1 from the edge of interstellar space (Sep 2012)
- a father who sent his kid's toy train to the stratosphere and back (Sep 2012)
- the Virgin Galactic spaceport (Sep 2012)
- Google Lunar X prize competition (Oct 2012)
- the discovery that the soil on the moon contains water (Oct 2012)
- the discovery of a planet with four suns (Oct 2012)
- a man who jumped out of a capsule from the outer edges of the atmosphere (Oct 2012)
- an asteroid that will pass close to Earth in February 2013
Our recent heightened fascination with the great, vast blackness might be because we are tired of the incessant flow of depressing news, like failing economies, wars and conflict. I think we want to see what people can achieve, what challenges we can conquer. We want to witness the victory of human intellect over nature. We want to bask in the success of brave pioneering heroes like Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong and Felix Baumgartner. This is the "hope" that Obama promised in his 2008 election campaign, but something he intends to rip out of the hands of the American people with his proposed cuts to the NASA budget.
There's another reason not to cut the NASA budget. The Washington Post reported in July 2012:
Bill Nye [the Science Guy] has a really good reason for why President Obama should not cut funding for space exploration: Who will figure out how to deflect the asteroid that could wipe out civilization?
“If the Earth gets hit by an asteroid, it's game over. It's control-alt-delete for civilization.”If the President has his way, NASA will no longer be at the forefront of this important field. It could be that Obama is betting that the Earth will be pulverized by a huge, falling rock, so why waste the money? It's more likely, though, that the President prefers that Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, Elon Musk's SpaceX or a highly populated Asian country will be the ones to dominate this technology.
One way or another, my grandchildren will likely take interplanetary travel for granted, even if the in-flight literature is in Chinese.
Follow on Twitter: @ykarp
Follow on Google+: +Yossi Karp
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For better or for worse — or perhaps more accurately, for better *and* for worse — America always had a frontier to which to set its sites. During the 19th century, that frontier was manifest destiny. In the first half of the 20th century, it was emergence as the free world's super power (at least to the extent that democracy, at least in name, implied real freedom). Then, for much of the 2nd half of the century, space became the new frontier, capturing the imagination of Americans and many around the world, providing concrete scientific goals, and placing America in a leadership position in a field that kept folks interested and excited. What's more, achievement in outer space made Americans — liberals and conservatives alike — proud of their country, whatever their views on other, non-space issues. That is, until economic factors, technological obstacles, and a shift in political fortunes and priorities altered the picture. I believe that the Obama administration's backing away from commitment to space exploration is, to a large extent, an expression of its view of America's place in the world. That is, seeing the USA shift from being an expanding frontier society, to a burgeoning welfare state. To be honest, and in all fairness, I'm not sure any American politician (at least not an electable one) has the imagination and the courage to convince Americans to place welfare state expenditure aside, and to invest instead in furthering the space adventure, at least as far as manned space flight goes.
ReplyDeleteDave E, all good points. On your last sentence, while it is true that space exploration could be seen as a frivolous adventure, it can also be a boon to the economy and provide tactical military advantage. Technologies, products and know-how that develop from space research can be sold and licensed to other countries, patented and even in some cases developed into consumer products. The military advantages include new and safer ways to perform surveillance, reduce risk, etc., as well as the development of cheaper, faster and more effective weapons, nav systems, and so on. Some of the military products coming out of the space program can also be sold to other countries. This stimulates the US economy. So if a politician can sell these ideas to the American people as a way for the US to both be a leader and boost the economy, then that might just be the ticket. But as you say, it also takes courage. Oh, and one more thing, the space program doesn't necessarily have to come at the expense of social benefits; Obama has wasted a lot of money on corporate bailouts and a wildly ballooning government, so there are other places where the fat can be trimmed.
DeleteAnother interesting "space" tidbit: Jerusalem to host the International Space Conference - the world's largest space convention - in 2015.
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