The nations that lead on the frontiers, end up dictating the course of human history. We can’t turn our back on that or postpone that.
That is worth half a penny on the federal discretionary spending dollar.
We should be spending more on the frontier.
This nation was built on frontiers. It’s in this nations blood. It is a prime example of American exceptionalism.
Those flags on the moon, those shuttles roaring into space, it’s core to our nature.
In a pre-flight interview, Endeavour pilot Greg Johnson talked about the risks of spaceflight and why it’s worthwhile:
“I think the risk is well worth it because we are an exploring country. We are a leading-edge technology country, and I take my parenting very seriously and I talk to my kids about being the lead dog, and if you’re the lead dog, everybody else is looking at the tail end of the lead dog. You want to be the lead dog, not the guys behind. And we’ve been the lead dog, and the reason we’ve been the lead dog is because we take those risks, we push technology and exploration forward, and the space program is a perfect example of that, and the technologies and the capabilities that we get from the space program, and the economies ~~ I mean, the economic impact is a little bit intangible, but if you really go back and look at all the various spin-offs and things that we’ve gotten from the space program and how it’s impacted our country and our world, space is that next frontier that we need to explore.
“And so I think it’s extremely important to be involved with space and I think that we don’t spend enough; I think we should spend much more on our space program than we do these days, but I know times are tight, so any risk to me personally, I think it’s well worth it.”
It may be a core to our nature, but a $14.5T debt isn`t.
We`re not the same nation that won the race to the moon. After the last Shuttle mission ends, the best we`ll be doing for manned missions is hitching rides with the Russians to the ISS. Hardly the stuff of “frontiers.”
It`s probably the limit of our capability anyway. America is a nation in decline that can`t even protect its southern border. Mars can wait.