Move aside, NASA

OC Register ^ | 1/19/04 | Edward L. Hudgins

[NormsRevenge]

One reaction to President Bush's plan for a permanent moon base and a trip to Mars is, "Great! It's about time NASA stopped going around in circles in low Earth orbit and returns to real science and exploration." Unfortunately, there's not a snowball's chance in the sun that the same agency that currently is constructing a downsized version of its originally planned space station, decades behind schedule, at 10 times its original budget, a few hundred miles up in orbit, will be able to build a station several hundred thousand miles away on the moon.

[NormsRevenge]

Edward L. Hudgins is the Washington director of The Objectivist Center and editor of Cato Institute book, "Space: The Free-Market Frontier".

[CasearianDaoist]

Good Aricle. (Hi Norm)

[ashrak]

I for one, will be happy to see us decist with the ISS. We do all the work and others benefit more than we do from its fruits.
I do not think that we are technolocically advanced enough yrt to privatize space travel.....soon but not quite yet.

Now as for privatizing building of bases...it is kinda that way now...bid contracts.....but I agree more tax incentives could get there butts in gear with a far more bold sets of parameters. I also agree that increased activity in research and development would pay HUGE dividends for the economy as a whole.

I cant wait till priceline has a weekend for two on europa.

[theFIRMbss]

>Even if the federal government foots the bill for a moon base, it should not own it. Rather, NASA should partner with consortia of universities, private foundations and even businesses ...

The business right speaks ...
The government, in theory
at least, must answer

to its citzens.
Businesses, foundations and
universities

answer to no one.
(And, please, don't even bring up
"shareholder" nonsense ...)

[NormsRevenge]

NASA Op/Ed Ping

[Truth666]

" NASA will actually need to be downsized and the private sector allowed "
NASA is already downsized to the minimum - you need some people clapping hands in front of the screens from time to time.
Besides, it's not about the private sector,
to get tha water, .... from Mars ..... it's up to the shareware sector

[farmfriend]

Just so you see it.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

NASA will actually need to be downsized and the private sector allowed to lead the way to the next frontier.

Here is y input as an engineer who designs NASA spacecraft. Private sector can only do a better job than NASA because NASA is too busy going all out building a politically correct engineering and research agency. "Diversity" is NASA's number one goal. Exceptional research and engineering is about 10th on the scale of important NASA objectives. NASA could easily do moon and mars missions is they gave up focusing on people's skin color and instead focused on engineering. Will a federal agency ever do that? Unlikely. Too many liberals running human resources.

[Dan Evans]

Very true. NASA is not what it used to be. Environmentally correct engineering killed the shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

And if government didn't take 40% of our GDP I guarantee you that a civilian space program would exist.

[ex-snook]

"The federal government wouldn't need to spend any taxpayer dollars if it gave the first business to construct a permanent lunar base with its own money a 25-year exemption from all federal taxes on all of its operations, not just those on the Moon. "

This should have a barf alert. This kind of a tax cut means someone else will pick up 25 year's worth. People have to get it straight - a tax cut is reducing government services. Even Bush's 'tax cut' is passing the taxes increases to local government or the future. It's a shell game. What a crock.

[11B3]

"Even Bush's 'tax cut' is passing the taxes increases to local government or the future."

See, even you yourself don't get it. You just contradicted your previous statement right above that one:

" a tax cut is reducing government services"

Cutting services means that those services are no longer available through the government. If state or local authorities decide to offer those services, it is at their discretion and cost. The Feds aren't mandating that state or locals pick up the old services.

As for offering tax incentives for establishing a lunar base, I can't see that happening. Any initial lunar installation will be of a military nature, operated by the DoD - although it will appear to be a civilian one.

[ex-snook]

"Cutting services means that those services are no longer available through the government. If state or local authorities decide to offer those services, it is at their discretion and cost. " "

Taxes are paid to all levels of government. Moving medicare to the States would not be a tax decrease.

The Feds aren't mandating that state or locals pick up the old services.

You are making news - they are called unfunded mandates.

[Straight Vermonter]

I watched a program this morning about the Human Genome Project. The intent was to map the human genome over 15 years at a cost of $3B. Private industry did it in 3 years at a cost of $0 to taxpayers.

The parallels with the space industry seem evident, at least to me.

[Dead Dog]

But after the triumphs of Apollo, NASA failed to make space more accessible to mankind.

NASA cannot be blamed for the Shuttle, that was Nixon and the OMB.

[theFIRMbss]

>The intent was to map the human genome over 15 years at a cost of $3B. Private industry did it in 3 years at a cost of $0 to taxpayers

Isn't the theory
that anything industry
pays for gets passed on

as higher prices
to consumers? For three years,
we've paid taxes, and

I suppose we paid
higher prices to finance
the genome project...

[Straight Vermonter]

In this case the people who receive a benefit from the project pay for it. Instead of having everyone pay no matter what.

[FreedomFlynnie]

What's moveon.org paying anti-business trolls to post on conservative forums these days? And do you get a bonus for doing it in haiku?

[theFIRMbss]

>What's moveon.org paying anti-business trolls to post on conservative forums these days?