NO, SON, YOU CAN'T BE AN ASTRONAUT

boblonsberry.com ^ | 07/08/11 | Bob Lonsberry

[shortstop]

I can't believe we're shutting down our wonderful Muslim Outreach Program called NASA./s I'm sure it's much better to funnel our money into illegal aliens, lazyazz people who won't work and those inner city baby machines pumping out future Democrat voters. This isn't America anymore.

[cripplecreek]

Nobody talks about it but the international outer space treaty is the real hurdle. Space has the same status as Antarctica.

The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars States Parties to the Treaty from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to otherwise station them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications (Art.IV). However, the Treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit. The treaty also states that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and shall be free for exploration and use by all States.

The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, since they are the Common heritage of mankind. Art. II of the Treaty states that "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means". However, the State that launches a space object retains jurisdiction and control over that object. The State is also liable for damages caused by their space object and must avoid contaminating space and celestial bodies.

What's the point in exploration if everything you find is globally owned? There's no incentive for private industry to strive to be anything more than taxi driver, freight hauler, or innkeeper in space.

[DManA]

Blame science for the demise of the space program. In 50 years since we’ve gone outside the atmosphere they have found nothing, within our reach, that is worth going out there for.

[Cincinatus]

That treaty is no hurdle -- treaties are ignored and/or discarded every day. The OST prohibits national claims to extraterrestrial property, not individual ones. Besides, if money-making private activity were to occur on the Moon or an asteroid, who would stop you?

[GonzoGOP]

Well if being an astronaut means flying on a government designed, government built, government owned and government operated spacecraft then yes the US is out of the space race. Of course if you can pay the freight there are some guys who are willing to fly you. And I'm willing to put real money that the Dragon will be flying crews before any ship designed and built by the the National Muslim Outreach Agency does.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[hopespringseternal]

It really does come down to exploration or feeding people who refuse to work

There is a lot of political payoff in handing out goodies to ne'er-do-wells.

[massgopguy]

I remember watching every launch from Project Mercury to the last Shuttle. The Jupiter 2 was supposed to take off for Alpha Centauri in 1998. I thought is was possible when we landed on the moon that the technology would be there. I guess we can watch the Chinese land on Mars with the next wave of technology on our iPads.

[cripplecreek]

We can’t even drive a drill bit into the ground on earth and America abides by UN treaties no matter how badly they hurt us.

[Forgotten Amendments]

Another “conservative” calls the government “we”.

We can go to space any time. We shouldn’t have bureacrats doing it.

[ScottinVA]

We don’t make the Right Stuff anymore.

Instead, we grow lawyers. That's our contribution now.

[Cincinatus]

We can’t even drive a drill bit into the ground on earth

That has nothing to do with the existence of a treaty -- that's simply because of the leftist policies of the current regime.

And as for the US abiding by UN treaties no matter what -- not down here in Texas, we don't! :^D

[Wolfie]

Same ol’ same ol’: Cut something, but not my thing.

[mad_as_he$$]

NASA is broken beyond belief. They make other dysfunctional fed agencies look like the paradigm of efficient operation.

BTW Bob the private sector will step in and your kid can go to space if he wants.

[stuartcr]

NASA = Muslim outreach program???

[cripplecreek]

It’s time to rethink international space law

The res communis doctrine resounds most prominently when dealing with property ownership rights in outer space. The Outer Space Treaty not only forbids claiming of territory by nations, but its child, the Moon Treaty, attempts to extend that prohibition to private legal entities also. Although the United States is not a signatory to the Moon Treaty, it has not taken open actions to actually refute its legal viability. The result is that the Moon Treaty and its res communis doctrine has slowly crept into the realm of accepted international law.

"What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?"

-James Monroe

[cripplecreek]

[GonzoGOP]

I guess we can watch the Chinese land on Mars with the next wave of technology on our iPads.

China has made three manned space flights and hasn't flown since 2008. They have yet to do rendezvous and docking, something that we did during the Gemini era. You aren't going to the moon much less mars without rendezvous and docking.

They also need a new booster. The Long March rocket is maxed out with the Shenzhou spacecraft. So they are in essence in the same place we are. They aren't going to the moon with anything they can put on a launchpad today. And they take almost as long as NASA to develop a new booster. To be blunt the Chinese space program is still 40 years behind us, although it is making progress while we are standing still, and as such will catch up.

The wild card is commercial space. The Falcon/Dragon-9 could fly crew within a very short period of time. The Falcon-9 Heavy cold easily throw enough mass for a moon shot. And the Mars Society put out a paper showing that given six launches the Falcon-9 Heavy could put enough mass on orbit for a bare bones Mars shot using Bigelow Aerospace inflateable habitation modules. And even the Chinese admit that can't come close to SpaceX in terms of cost per kilo to orbit (reference WHY THE US CAN BEAT CHINA: THE FACTS ABOUT SPACEX COSTS).

The US is in a bad place so far as space exploration is concerned. But the Russians are just as broke and the Chinese are way behind. And if their economy craters (as it appears likely to) they won't be doing a Moon in a decade stunt the way we did back in the 60s.

[Westbrook]

Did the U.S. Senate actually ratify that “Space Treaty”?

God help us!

[2001convSVT]

Government cheese became more important to us than national glory.

Right you are, the professional politician knows that government handouts, BUY VOTES (NASA doesn’t). That is why I know we will never be able to balance the Federal budget, pay down the debit or STOP printing money. We are done as a nation, Long Live the Republic of Texas! (until they lean that they can vote themselves money from the public Treasury).