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
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On Jan. 14, President George W. Bush charged NASA with the task of replacing the space shuttle as well as establishing a lunar base and beginning manned flights to Mars by 2020. While his vision of an astronaut planting the American flag on Martian soil within the next 20 years is an inspiration to all who value scientific learning and achievement, the journey to get there efficiently and successfully requires more than Bush has planned.
The unfortunate disaster of the space shuttle Columbia last spring demanded a new evaluation of the aging orbiter program, and so far, NASA has no solid design plans for its replacement. There is also the issue of tax dollars; NASA's budget for the next five years is $86 billion, and Bush wants to add one dollar to that amount each year. Though Bush may know where he wants to go in how many years, the details of this plan don't exist and no one can predict what the costs will be in the end.
As Americans gather their W-2s and take a look at how much of their money the government is going to take from them, the idea of Bush wanting to spend even more of their money doesn't appeal to most. Fortunately, there is a plan that would reduce the amount Americans would pay in taxes and at the same time make the space program more efficient and less costly. It may even make the lunar base a reality in less time than Bush wants.
"While (Bush's) vision of an astronaut planting the American flag on Martian soil ... is an inspiration ... , the journey to get there efficiently and successfully requires more than Bush has planned.
The simple solution-privatize the space program.
When one stops to consider it, the idea of the government holding the keys to all space-related research and technology makes little sense. Ocean exploration is conducted through private companies, and even college students engage in yearly competitions to design new robotic submarines. Freeing the realm of space technology means making it available to more of the newest and brightest minds of the public, which means faster progress.
The huge amount of paperwork and regulations that the government enforces in all its institutions is an enormous hindrance to anybody going through the system, which is plain to students when they wait in line to get a new driver license. If automobile construction were restricted to government regulation the way the space shuttle is, everyone would still be driving Pintos and El Caminos. Holding technology back by its place in the bureaucracy is senseless and counterproductive. The fact that astronauts still ride 20-year-old spacecrafts into orbit is proof of this.
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