Xref: utzoo sci.space:8510 sci.space.shuttle:2072 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!uflorida!novavax!proxftl!greg From: greg@proxftl.UUCP (Gregory N. Hullender) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: New light, different focus... Message-ID: <1060@proxftl.UUCP> Date: 27 Nov 88 18:59:05 GMT References: Reply-To: greg@proxftl.UUCP (Gregory N. Hullender) Organization: Proximity Technology, Ft. Lauderdale Lines: 43 Summary: Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Distribution: Keywords: In article gtww2z9z%gables.span@umigw.miami.edu (Jason Gross) writes: >Now is our chance to do what should have been done all along: define what >we want to do in space. Do we want to go commercial? Do we want a space >station? Do we want more planetary exploration (manned or unmanned)? The _Ecomomist_ had a very good article about space recently. They said that there were really four reasons to go into space: Money, Power, Knowledge, and Glory. The suggested each be dealt with as follows: 1) Money. Commercial exploitation of space should *not* be done by the government. The government might subsidize it or patronize it to help get it started, but every effort should be made to privatize commercical launches as much as possible. 2) Power. The military should be free to persue their own objectives in space, without strings attached to NASA. This partnership has not served either side very well. 3) Knowledge. Universities and other research institutions should be free to purchase launch capability wherever they wish (consistent with national security). Their budgets should simply include some amount for launch costs for each project. 4) Glory. Man exploring the universe is not a means to an end; it is an end in itself, and the public is willing to pay for a certain amount of it. NASA should pick a goal (Man on Mars, say), and, given a realistic annual budget for it (what the public is *really* willing to pay for pure exploration) plan out how to spend it intelligently over the time it will actually take. If the USA alone won't foot the whole bill, go in together with the same allies we're working with on the space station. I think a great deal of NASA's problems come from the fact that it has always been in business #4, but it has tried to justify things based on the other three. NASA's troubles with Congress are not the fault of Congress; they stem directly from NASA's lies about the economic practicality of the shuttle. Good steps have been made toward eliminating NASA's non-Glory functions. This should continue. -- Greg Hullender / 3511 NE 22nd Av./Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308 / uunet!proxftl!greg "People get tired of being trampled on by the iron-shod feet of oppression." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.