By
JERRY AHERN
The guy who was stupidly sent off to live in the White House may be taking the biggest gamble not only in our nation’s history, but the history of the world. Sharon and I were married in 1968 and bought a television set – a little black and white portable that was a floor model – in time to see man’s first steps on the moon in 1969. And, yes, I really believe we did put a man on the moon. I had hoped that we would again. Now, however, fearless leader and his team of leftist social planners are chopping replacements for the obsolescent Shuttle fleet out of the budget. Just to get astronauts up to the space station, we’ll have to hitch rides with the Russians, for which they are charging us up the ying-yang, as they have a right to do, of course. The Russians continuing their endeavors in manned space flight is the problem.
If you recall, the reason John F. Kennedy pushed for racing to the moon was to beat the Russians to it. In those days, when the kindly Russians were the nasty Soviets, we and other western nations were worried that, if the Russians got to the moon first and built a base there, missiles could be installed and a veritable “sword of Damocles” would hang over our heads and the Russians could have their way with the world.
Well, guess what, leftists! Unless the Russians have changed their mind, it is their express intent to return to the moon and establish a permanent presence there. Both the European Space Agency and the Japanese have plans for manned lunar bases. I’m sure the Chinese have similar interests. What happens when not only countries that like us, but countries that don’t, have lunar facilities and The United States does not?
And, lest we forget, our planet is in what is often called a cosmic shooting gallery, Near Earth Objects (NEOs) of wide ranging size – maybe twenty-five percent of the bigger one’s catalogued – zipping around us all the time. It is commonly believed that the Gulf of Mexico was formed when one of these larger NEOs struck Earth and wiped out the majority of species on the planet. Eventually, what is called a “Planet Killer” will come again. Hey, maybe we’ll be able to divert or destroy it. But, what if we can’t? Mankind’s destiny is among the stars, lest some NEO, some terrible pandemic or some other cataclysm obliterate the species on this planet. It would be nice to think, if that should someday happen, that survivors of the human race might carry with them the principles of freedom and justice which have been the hallmark of The United States. Thanks to the short-sightedness of leftist social planners, America may one day be only a vague memory lost in the corridors of time. Administration plans cancelling development of manned space flight vehicles and a return to the moon are egregiously stupid.
A DANGEROUS GAMBLE
Previous post: WHY DON’T WE REALLY TRY CAPITALISM?
Next post: LET’S JUST TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER, SHALL WE?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not a great fan of continuing space flights simply because we’ve done it for so long. I’m not even terribly interested in going back to the moon for its own sake. If the Russians, Japanese, and Chinese, etc. want to foot the huge bills it would require to go back to the moon, let them have at it.
Right now, the U.S. spends far too much money on P.R. gimmicks, designed to buy votes. From Social Seurity (which secures no one) to Medicare (which will go broke in the next decade) to the so-far-unpassed-Obamacare monstrosity; the federal government has spent far too much of our money trying to buy votes. The whole space-race was simply JFK’s attempt to beat he Soviets at SOMETHING at a time when we were badly losing the Cold War(Sputnik, the Bay of Pigs, Hungarian uprising crushed).
I’m glad Obama isn’t being tempted to toss more dollars into the netherworld of “space exploration”. It’s not the government’s job. This isn’t national security, after all.
However, a very real side effect did reveal itself during the space race; increased technology. In order to put those ships into orbit, and then send them to the moon, NASA had to solve a whole lot of problems. And, the solutions have definitely improved our lives over the last 50 years. You name it; it was probably first built for NASA.
So – why can’t a consortium of American businesses invest (with tax incentives) into putting the next generation of spacecraft into orbit (or on the moon)? We could continue to benefit from the research & developement of new gadgets; but the federal government would not be continuing to reach beyond it’s constitutional mandate.
Uvalde TX
I’m with Jerry on this one. I’m having vivid flashbacks to an issue of Popular Mechanics, circa 1985, which had a very scary headline for the ten-year-old ME who looked at it. The featured article was about the then-space-race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.:
Whoever Controls Space, Controls Earth
Methinks Obama will indeed be a one-term president, so hopefully the next one will get NASA going again instead of using it as a propaganda machine for “global warming” research.
The only possible use I can think of, for GOVERNMENT “investment” in space would be as a next generation for SDI. If we could put defensive laser or missile platforms up there – and finally end the whole threat of Mutually Assured Destruction – I would agree to it as a national security issue. In this way, whoever controlled space might indeed control the earth.
Otherwise, space exploration simply isn’t an issue for government to lead in. Private companies could do it better; and come up with a more practical purpose in it, so as to create profits for shareholders.
If America wants to become a second rate power — and discarding manned space exploration is a great way to do that — we have to realize that we will, sooner or later, lose the global dominance which has kept us free. It has long been a leftist/liberal complaint that money spent on space exploration can be better spent on social issues. With the hard left leadership in the White House and in both Houses of Congress, it is no wonder that we can spend money on “green” issues and we trash our defensive posture by allowing the possibility of enemy missiles aimed at us from the moon. Let’s call things as they are. People who want to re-distribute wealth are nothing more than Communists, much more concerned with promoting “Pink” than the Red, White and Blue.
Jerry,
Why do we have to chose space exploration or mediocrity? I don’t see the logical linkage. We can be great by getting out of debt, and limiting our government within it’s constitutional framework. Space travel doesn’t fit there; unless it’s a direct issue with national security. Building SDI out wouldfulfill the obligation.
Who cares if the Russians put ukes on the moon? We would have more warning of moon-based launches then of those in China or Russia.
Why does it seem to matter so much where Obama stands on this issue? Your disagreement seems to be more contrarian than constitutional.
Again, let private industry get us to the moon if there is some value in it.
Uvalde, TX
Jerry,
Short sighted people with an agenda do not care about progress, technical advancement and the future benefits if it does not serve them today. Dreams are never cheap but when realized they generate such an overall abundance of innovation and wealth in the form of new directions that were never considered.
Take heart, the tide is going out on this lefty and his crew of misfits. Hopfully it leaves them stranded on Bikini Atol.
Honestly, our government is rapidly turning the United States into a third world nation by sending all the manufacturing overseas so that big business can make things cheaper and thus create a higher profit margin at the expense of the American people and America’s place in the world. I honestly forsee a second American revolution in our life time because the government has forgotten that they are supposed to represent the common man. They are too busy giving into greed and seeing how much they can line their own pocket. Obama is no different, he is just a smoother talker.
I hope that someday soon, the American people will wake up and see that no congressman needs a staff of 75 people or better to do their job. Nor do they need to make more money than the President. Let congress try to live on 20,000 dollars a year and see how quickly the BS gets cut out of the budget. Put chaingangs back to work repairing roads and the “infrastructure” rather than paying over-priced contractors whose people spend more time standing smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee on the side of the road than they do working just so they can milk budget overages.
Bill,
I agree. We will probably see another revolution in my lifetime (I’m 48 years old). We should consider a citizen legislature, like in Texas, which only meets for a single session every two years (about 100 days). It could be done by congressional rules (good luck on that!), and they could pass two annual budgets to keep it within constitutional guidelines. Emergency sessions would be called by a polled 2/3 majority. (Again, passed merely as a congressional procedural rule, rather than a constitutional amendment.)
Construction crews are a constant source of bemused laughter to me (especially city or state crews). There’s always one guy down in a trench, and three guys standing there discussing what he’s doing. Sounds like government, to me.
Uvalde TX
Missile platforms, lasers… aimed at whom? In the world of terrorism as your primary threat, anything armed in space is very unlikely to defend you. Increased security on land sea and air is about the best you can hope for, and even that isn’t going to secure you when you have several million religious nuts waiting to go off on one.
As for space, yeah in an ideal world a renewed space shuttle fleet would be nice, but I too am not convinced that your American dollars can be justified to foot the bill.
I actually argued for this at work the other day, stating the research benefits etc, but having had a few more conversations I am now in the view that the money could be better spent elsewhere.