02/02/10
The space geek in me is in conflict with the person who has applauded President Obama’s recent spending freeze. The plan to kill NASA’s $100-billion US plans to return astronauts to the moon is saddening for someone like myself who would really enjoy the site of astronauts setting foot on the moon. However, given the current economic crisis there is no doubt that the money could be invested more wisely. Before I move to the issue of how the money is going to be spent there is another issue that I find to be rather concerning. A simple question: why haven’t we (humanity) returned to the moon since the Apollo missions? What’s taking us so long? I would’ve thought that with all the technological advances we as a species have been through since the last moon landings that recreating those results wouldn’t have been that difficult. What’s worse is the billions of dollars ($4 billion annually on human space exploration) that have been spent have failed to put us on the moon. This spending is government waste at its finest. Perhaps the new proposals for the NASA budget can put us on the right path.
Redirecting the money into scientific research could help spur the innovation that is needed to give the American economy a boost. The technologies NASA seeks to develop would be used to send astronauts to a nearby asteroid, the moon, or the Martian moons. While that kind of proposal fills a certain space geek with excitement, it’s not long before I collect myself and see the problem with this idea. What NASA is proposing is taking humans further than the moon even though we haven’t been there in decades. Shouldn’t we aim for the moon before pouring billions into plans to send us to places we are even less likely to go to? I would be for the idea of the money going strictly into scientific research and then having the technology sold out to private companies that function more effectively than NASA, thus leading to a return to the moon, and journeys beyond, much sooner. Already, NASA has seven companies getting money to work on planning for some types of commercial spaceships. Given the obvious ineffectiveness of NASA programs to get humans back on the moon, increased support for the private sector would not only be a step in the right direction, but would also provide more economic stimulus. Putting humans back on the moon could be an event that unites humanity in working towards a common goal. We just need to re-examine how we plan to do it.
P.S. For those who always ask, “Why do we spend all this money on space exploration in the first place?” Simple, it goes right down to our simple human desire to learn more about our origins. For ages humans have been searching for the answers to our existence. Before we had science we relied on myths to tell us how we came to be. Now as we explore the deepest regions of space, we find ourselves coming closer and closer to the truth.
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