Spring Break
Privatized space travel?
Bush's plans for a lunar base and landing on Mars are idealistic, not realistic
By: Mike Walters
Issue date: 1/21/04 Section: Opinion
Allowing for this sector to be open to competition translates into companies working hard to be the best, most efficient, safe and reliable service to the stars, just as the automobile industry does for the highway. It would form new industries such as space tourism, allowing a honeymoon in space to move from science fiction to reality. No one can deny that there is an interest in this field, though for the decades that humankind has been in space, only one man - Dennis Tito, who traveled with the Russians in 2001 - has ever been to space as a tourist.
The research that goes along with designing space technology would aid other industries in the form of aircraft design, computers and new materials would happen at a faster pace. Companies would be free to allocate funds as they see fit, paying their workers at competitive rates, funding research and conducting as many experiments and flights as they need without having their budget dictated by congressmen who don't have a clue what their business involves.
Obviously, privatizing the space program would take a multi-billion dollar load off Americans, but eliminating NASA wouldn't eliminate the industry-it would enhance and expand it. Companies would immediately form to launch satellites and men into space, conduct research to make newer, cheaper rockets and have space stations and lunar bases built according to the demand, without waiting on a U.S. president to mandate it.
We must end the government's monopoly on space. If Americans want to see men on the moon and Mars, rocketing toward the stars as we have the potential to, we cannot allow the government to hold our dreams down. By privatizing the space program, we would undoubtedly see technology leap forward faster than it ever has before. Americans should see their money paid for space programs not in the form of a check to the IRS, but for a ticket to the moon.
-Mike Walters is a senior psychology major.
The research that goes along with designing space technology would aid other industries in the form of aircraft design, computers and new materials would happen at a faster pace. Companies would be free to allocate funds as they see fit, paying their workers at competitive rates, funding research and conducting as many experiments and flights as they need without having their budget dictated by congressmen who don't have a clue what their business involves.
Obviously, privatizing the space program would take a multi-billion dollar load off Americans, but eliminating NASA wouldn't eliminate the industry-it would enhance and expand it. Companies would immediately form to launch satellites and men into space, conduct research to make newer, cheaper rockets and have space stations and lunar bases built according to the demand, without waiting on a U.S. president to mandate it.
We must end the government's monopoly on space. If Americans want to see men on the moon and Mars, rocketing toward the stars as we have the potential to, we cannot allow the government to hold our dreams down. By privatizing the space program, we would undoubtedly see technology leap forward faster than it ever has before. Americans should see their money paid for space programs not in the form of a check to the IRS, but for a ticket to the moon.
-Mike Walters is a senior psychology major.
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