Space ‘Triumphs’ (Mars in another light)

Imagine your neighbor throwing a party to show off his brand new high-tech boat – or flower garden or remodeled kitchen. Pick your item and imagine the triumph in your neighbor’s eyes, voice and body language. You would surely be a spoilsport to try to rain on his parade with any kind of negative or derisive comment. What a mean thing that would be! But imagine that you discovered that your neighbor had built his invention by first raiding his other neighbor’s savings account. His fabulous new gizmo no longer looks so fabulous to you and, you conclude, it is quite perverse that it looks fabulous to him. Sure, it is still something of a wonder – what a thing to create, to build. But it cannot be reasonably denied that the means by which the fellow got the thing done, namely, by robbing his other neighbor, cast a very serous cloud over whatever wonderful thing he made that way.

Well, that’s how I see all those fabulous achievements of NASA, including some of the American government’s space exploration. It is actually worse than that. Since most of those who take part in those ventures are completely oblivious to the venality of the means by which their projects get off the ground – how their funding is secured, how it deprives millions of citizens of various amounts of wealth from which they might have produced their own more or less fabulous creations – I am not only appalled at the viciousness of these celebrations but also at the rank moral ignorance of all those who go about the celebration without a clue as to its source.

It would, indeed, be more honest to witness at least some of the folks who come on television to proclaim the wonders of these achievements if they toasted the extortionist scheme that provided them with the funding. At least we would learn that these folks are aware of what they are doing, that they are vicious but not also stupid. Instead, however, they go about their celebrations blithely, as if nothing untoward had been involved in how it all came to be achieved.

I am by no means some kind of Luddite who thinks the great leaps of technology, including space explorations, demonstrate the sin of hubris on part of the human race. No, that ignorant scientists and technologists who can stand and cheer when a brilliant payload lands on Mars and sends back stunning pictures that tell us all kinds of stuff we could make use of. It isn’t even necessary in these cases to produce immediate utilitarian results – the feats in and of themselves, like those of other human adventures, are often sufficient to cause delight for most decent people.

However, when one knows that these feats are produced on the backs of millions of tax payers – folks from whom wealth is confiscated at the point of a gun, ultimately, and who might very well have had vital objectives to pursue with the aid of their wealth and were cruelly deprived of this – there is no way to take part in all the hoopla. In fact, witnessing the morally blind pride exhibited by all those scientists, engineers, and administrators is quite painful. I must deny myself the joy I know I would feel if the accomplishments had not had been fueled by blood money.

But, perhaps I am odd. When I run across the so called marvels of past civilizations in Europe and elsewhere, such as the palaces, cathedrals, pyramids, great walls, and magnificent monuments, I find it difficult not to reflect on the deliberate, utterly avoidable human devastation that it took to get many of these artifacts produced. I always ask myself how things would have gone had all those people who were conscripted to labor on all these wondrous creations had the chance to choose their own projects.

I realize, of course, that they would probably have squandered a good deal of their lives and resources but, then, I recall that their conscripted labor and resources also went to waste a good deal of the time – in the service of wars of conquest, subjugation or confiscation, or of idolatry and frivolity. And then I recall, too, that while perhaps some of these products of forced labor, just as the recent Mars landing of the unmanned space craft, were wonderful and even helpful, we will never know how it would have gone had individuals been left free to determine to what end to devote their own labors and resources.

And, of course, it is also worth keeping in mind that many of the fabulous achievements resulting from conscripted mass labor created environmental destruction, too, which the less grandiose, more modest voluntary projects of individuals and small groups of freely united humans tended to avoid. (Just think of TVA, the Interstate Highway System, the massive canal projects and damns around the globe.)

But, yes, some of these projects are wonderful. They are only made not so by the fact that their creation violated the most elementary principle of civilized human association, freedom of choice.

Tibor Machan [send him mail] holds the Freedom Communications Professorship of Free Enterprise and Business Ethics at the Argyros School of Business & Economics, Chapman University, CA. A Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, he is author of 20+ books, most recently, The Passion for Liberty (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).

Yep NASA. What did NASA send me in return for my money?

Good grief. NASA (for the most part) spends the money on hardware, software, and expertise. Is there waste? Absolutely. Should it be minimized? You betcha. The point is that the money is handed out to people simply for breathing.

The point is that the money is handed out to people simply for breathing.

Yes this is worse - no argument from me at all on that score. Just because there are lots worse things than government funded space exploration doesn't mean that it is good. When you come right down to it those people who get paid to breath then go and spend the money on various things too.

My contention is that the same money that has been funneled through NASA over the last 15 or 20 years would probably have yielded far better results if it had been left in the private sector.

We've argued this before (over the last 100 years instead of the last 15-20). Modern history demonstrates the opposite. Big leaps require big dollars. Corporation simply cannot afford such expense. Will they be able to after NASA simplifies the technology? You bet.

Modern history demonstrates the opposite. Big leaps require big dollars. Corporation simply cannot afford such expense.

Arrgh - let's not go over that again. I don't think I could stand it. You look at the same things I do and see something entirely different.

Isn't the space program just the beginning of laying down an analogue of the interstate highway system in space? The goals here are important, especially those that involve getting fuel sources in place outside of the gravity well.

Once we can do that, we can mine the moon and nearby asteroids with relative ease, as well as construct orbital construction and refining facilities. Lots of useful things can be made in zero-g and ultra-high vacuum conditions that just cannot be done here on earth.

Once the infrastructure is in place (highway), THEN business can profitably take the whole thing over, leaving pure science and probes as the only thing under the government's purview.

That seems to be the ultra-long range plan, IIUC.

NASA's other roles and link to DOD.
1. Constructs, launches and maintains Weather satellites, monitoring natural disasters and weather.
2.Leader in development of satellites, and satellites used for military communications and observations.
3.Improvements in the safety of air traffic, through air traffic monitoring for both civilian and military use.
4.Technology that enabled GPS system which is used by both civilian and military for global positioning.
5.Computer software used for space flight is used in the design, testing and validation of data for military fighter aircraft and other military support aircraft.
6.Developed and implemented Emergency Beacon system for search and rescue. Use from ships, aircraft and individuals both military and civilian. Credited with saving over 13,000 life's worldwide.
7.MODIS(Moderate Resolution Imaging Spetroradiometer) used the U.S. forest Service to manage wildfires and protect life and property through the rapid fire deployment program, through two NASA satellites.
8.Smoke Detectors NASA invention
9.Bar Code Scanners NASA invention
10.Space Shuttle Dedicated Defense Department Missions still classified. Many. Deployment of military satellites to name a few not classified.
11.Development of launch vehicles for Department of Defense and their mission control and observation. Joint operations with DOD.

No. Last I heard we didn't have any interstates going to Japan, and they're a lot closer and more useful than asteroids, Jupiter and Mars.

outside of the gravity well.

You are not outside the gravity well just because you escape earth orbit. You have to climb the solar gravity gradient to get to the outer planets. Lots of people just don't have a clue as to how much energy is required to get to another planet. Did you know that mars is about the limit that spacecraft can go without gravitationally assisted manuvers? The Cassini Saturn probe needed several of these to get enough momentum to make it to Saturn. There isn't anything that could possibly be valuable enough in the outer solar system to make it worth the cost of getting it back. Think of the most valuable element you can. Take platinum, useful and valuable right, which would you rather buy? terrestrial platinum at $856 an oz or platinum mined from Jupiter's moons (if there's any there at all) at a billion dollars an ounce.

You look at the same things I do and see something entirely different.

That's because I rule and you are a poopy-head.

I'm teasing. In all actuality, I get riled up when "cost-cutters" put NASA on the platter to get cut up. I blame democrats for doing just that, during alot of the shuttle years, just so they could divert the funds to other "social" projects (pork). I think it crippled NASA. You want to rant about lowering taxes/pork? Rant away! Please make NASA your last item to bitch about. NASA is one of the best "extra-constitutional" organization we've got.

P.S. I will follow you to every NASA thread there is, and hound you to....to....carpal tunnel syndrome!

OK let me clarify. I did this before and maybe I didn't make it plain or maybe you missed it. I have no objection to military R&D even if NASA is doing it. This is a constitutional duty/power of the federal government. It's the space exploration part that I would like to see privatized.

Oh now I understand! It's selfish of me to want to keep my money that I earned, but it's noble of you to want to take what I earned from me and spend it on something you like. I hear similar crap from every liberal tax and spend politician in Moscow Washington.

Wachoo talkin' 'bout? I'm agreeing with you. Grab all the bucks you can. We're all about greed. In and out for the buck, and don't give a damn about nothing else. There's nothing more to it than bucks, kid. I take money from you, you take money from me. Money, money, money.

Think of the most valuable element you can.

Californium! Ofcourse I have no idea if it is more prevalent in space than here on earth. However, certain elements/compounds, like helium 3, only exist in necessary quantities "out there", can be brought down to surface at reasonable cost, and are extremely valuable.

There is always a gray area. The problem is a lot of the DOD,NSA,CIA, etc. is dispersed throughout other government programs. This is especially true with NASA, they maintain close ties and joint operations between them, especially the Air Force and Navy, as well as the Army to a somewhat lesser degree. A lot more of space exploration has to do with defense, defense testing, technology transfer etc. then we are privy to. I understand your point though.

You are wrong. The constitution gives the government the right to collect taxes and spend those taxes on a limited number of enumerated duties and powers, NOT whatever the whim of the elected representatives is.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that limits government spending to specific, enumerated areas. Quite the contrary; the Constitution grants broad general powers to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. It provides for a defined legislative branch to argue the practicality, necessity or wisdom of appropriating money for various needs. You can argue until the cows come home whether this or that government project is worthy of being undertaken, but in the final analysis, if you end up in the minority you must either accept the consequences, strive to become the majority, or, if all else fails, eat shit and die.

Thanks for the note of common sense. Those who would make this a Constitutional issue are just using a false argument. Experts in Constitutional law as well as the courts have recognized that the Congress, as the elected representatives of the people, have broad discretion in the use of public funds. A clear path is delineated for the origin and disposition of spending bills. Certainly there is room for debate as to the nature and content of these, and that is why those elected officials are sent there. It's not surprising that these bills often face the most arduous path to passage, but, in the end, it is the job of the Congress and President to reach some kind of consensus. Making a Constitutional issue out of every item in an authorization or appropriate bill is not only a red herring, it's hopeless.

Well, we don't build roads to Japan for the same reason we don't build them to the moon. However, we do have infrastructure to simplify getting there, namely harbors and airports.

Also, we likely won't make trips outside of Mars's orbit until we develop fusion power. However, there are a wealth of resources in our relative back yard. Cruithne is a mostly metallic asteroid in orbit of earth, for example. There are hundereds of other asteroids VERY near the earth's orbit, which are themselves enough reason to have some capacity to move about in space. It is estimated that you and I have about the same chances of dying in an asteroid impact during the length of our lives as we do that of dying in a plane crash. (Several ways to look at that, to be sure :) ) Of course, if we can land on the things and mine them for useful materials that are virtually non-existant on earth but plentiful in space, like irridim, we would likely have the technical capability to scoot the suckers around, too.

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