The New Space Race

Hi!

This being the week of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission there have been quite a few news stories about it. The one that meant the most to me was the segment on NPR's Science Friday titled Marking 40 Years Since Apollo 11. This point was only a small one in the overall discussion, but it is significant: There is a new space race.

In the 60's, the race was the first to the moon. Obviously, the United States won that race on July 20, 1969. The new space race will be to see who is the first to make space a strategic location for military operations. It's going to happen, it's just a matter of who does it first...and most successfully. The U.S. is basically out of the space race for at least five years. The space shuttle program will end next year and it'll be at least five before we'll be able to launch our own vehicles again. Until then, our astronauts will be hitching rides with the Russians.

President Bush laid down the challenge to put a man on Mars. Unfortunately, he never asked Congress for any money, so it was an empty challenge. Will Obama, in this time of economic crisis, ask the American People to increase funding for NASA? I doubt it. It'd be a hard sell even though the amount that could put a man back on the moon is less than it'll cost to save GM. The difference, of course, is that GM employs more regular folks than NASA. Fundamental scientific exploration will take a back seat to more direct forms of government stimulus, but it might have a chance if it's framed as a national defense argument.

I'm not advocating either way, mind you, but wouldn't be surprised if NASA eventually fell under the auspices of the Department of Defense. Even though part of the mission of the starship Enterprise is "to explore strange, new worlds," it's still part of a military organization... While warp drive may still be a long way off, that aspect of Star Trek, I fear, is just around the corner...

Take care!
Matt