Krauthammer: America has been lost in space. It's time to find our nerve again

The Weekly Standard ^ | 01/31/2000, Volume 005, Issue 19 | Charles Krauthammer

[mylife]

WHAT MANNER OF CREATURE ARE WE? It took 100,000 years for humans to get inches off the ground. Then, astonishingly, it took only 66 to get from Kitty Hawk to the moon. And then, still more astonishingly, we lost interest, spending the remaining 30 years of the 20th century going around in circles in low earth orbit, i.e., going nowhere.

Its the same with all manner of progress, Those who have no idea of the effort involved in these milestones become complacent and demanding. Consumers tend to have no longterm respect for dedication to progress, they think things just happen.

[marktwain]

He is also anti-freedom. He likes the idea of a disarmed citizenry.

[mylife]

Krauthammer like to pay for everything he wants from your and my pocket.

There are those among us who would pay for these things with our own sweat and blood, and do so willingly.

If I had the opportunity to be involved in such a noble vision, I would do so gladly, despite tremendous sacrifice.

[philosofy123]

Liberal social agenda.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Check out SpaceDev stock quote

[auboy]

Spectacular image bump. Thanks!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Soon there will be many more!

[Kiss Me Hardy]

If Kraut wants to go to the moon, he can pay for it himself. I'll be happy to help out a little with provisioning the expedition: He can take my mother-in-law to cook for him.

[thoughtomator]

With regards to the "What happened?" question... Jimmy Carter happened, then after a brief ressurection of space ambitions during Reagan's term, Clinton happened.

[TruthNtegrity]

Bookmarking to read later.

[philosofy123]

Krauthammer is for abortion, wellfair, gun control, racial quotas,...lots of liberal social agenda.

[Norse]

There are far nobler things to be done here on Earth at the moment than to waste money on this garbage.

[mylife]

Krauthammer is for abortion, wellfair, gun control, racial quotas,...lots of liberal social agenda.

And I'm for exploration and Manifest Destiny

[Cincinatus' Wife]

With regards to the "What happened?" question... Jimmy Carter happened, then after a brief ressurection of space ambitions during Reagan's term, Clinton happened.

We've entered a new era, where "good" happens.

[mylife]

There are far nobler things to be done here on Earth at the moment

Many of which are being done as we speak.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Clinton used his 1st Line Item veto to kill Clementine II, which was a Defensive Dept. Mission studying space based defense.

[mylife]

Clinton used his 1st Line Item veto to kill Clementine II, which was a Defensive Dept. Mission studying space based defense.

And Jimmuh signed away our right as the first on the moon to lay claim to it by signing the 74 Lunar treaty.

[af_vet_rr]

But I believe that NASA needs to get out of the way of private companies who are willing to spend their venture capital to make the moon base happen, outside of the realm of government control. The NASA mission should be redefined: it should be on the cutting edge of research and exploration, but it should step aside for private concerns looking for return on investment to handle the more mundane aspects of space travel, exploration, and eventually exploitation. It can be done.

The X-Prize is a step towards that goal. The amount of interest in space travel, both from a "spectator" point of view, as well as an industrial/commerical point of view, have been larger than many expected. It has taken a while to catch-on, but 2003 was a big year, and 2004 could see a winner. Many of the contestants aren't simply looking to win the prize, but to use it (the competition and the interest) to springboard themselves into affordable space travel and launching for everybody.

If you can take the X-Prize and build upon it's success we can do three things :

1)Get NASA out of the trucking business. Some of the companies involved in the X-Prize could eventually handle many of the LEO trips that NASA currently does, both hauling people to/from the ISS, and satellites, satellite repair, and even cleaning up LEO.

2)Have a true revolution in space travel. With the amount of competition, companies will come out of it that can truly open up space to small companies and private citizens.

3)Get NASA back into doing the "big" things and space exploration.

With so many high-tech industries/jobs being shipped overseas, space-related industries in the US could be the kick-in-the-pants we need.

[omniscient]

The response so far to this article really surprises me. I would have assumed that only leftist, anti-technology, organic, envirowacko types would have opposed big public spending on a space program. It looks like the lack of vision and imagination is actually much more universal, spanning even ideological boundaries. I was equally surprised when discovering how many conservatives actually believed in JFK assassination conspiracy theory.

[tiamat]

mylife wrote:

There are those among us who would pay for these things with our own sweat and blood, and do so willingly.,br> If I had the opportunity to be involved in such a noble vision, I would do so gladly, despite tremendous sacrifice.

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You and me both.
People who say we should not go would not agree with Columbus or Magellan either.

The Chinese are going.
Americans will not like the result if they set up on the moon first.
I consider this a matter of security as well as a noble endevor.
Besides!
We always get a tech-bump through space missions!

Tia