>From smoke detectors to chromosomes, this dude is a dunce. On Jul 21, 10:16 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > Space Program Was Our Biggest Bridge to Nowhereby Gene HealyThis article > appeared inThe DC Examineron July 12, 2011.Friday marked the space shuttle's > swan song, as the Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center for the > program's 135th and final flight. > It was President George W. Bush who announced the shuttle's retirement with > his 2004 "Vision for Space Exploration," which included a moon base and > "human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond." But it was President Obama who > put the kibosh on that vision, canceling the moon project and leaving "worlds > beyond" in doubt. > "We are retiring the shuttle in favor of nothing," Michael Griffin, Bush's > NASA administrator, wailed to theWashington Postrecently. > Here, as usual, "nothing" gets a bad rap. I'll be "in favor of nothing" until > the advocates of federally funded spaceflight can come up with an argument > for it that doesn't make me spray coffee out my nose. > Outside of avoiding the hypothetical horror of Martian gulags, what does the > ordinary taxpayer get from the space program? > NASA's Griffin failed that test in 2005, when he gave an interview to > theWashington Postinsisting it was essential that "Western values" accompany > those who eventually "colonize the solar system," because "we know the kind > of society we would get if you, for example, carry Soviet values. That means > you want a gulag on Mars. Is that what you're looking for?"Well ... is it, > punk? > Outside of avoiding the hypothetical horror of Martian gulags, what does the > ordinary taxpayer get from the space program? > Not much, says Robin Hanson, a George Mason University economist and research > associate at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute: The benefits are "mostly > like the pyramids national prestige and being part of history." > Space partisans often point to the alleged technological breakthroughs that > come from solving hard problems like keeping humans alive in an environment > never meant to sustain them. > But, as Hanson points out, you could get similar technological boons from any > ambitious project you convince the feds to spray money at whether it's robot > butlers or floating cities. If we wanted to, we could surely "find other > projects with larger direct payoffs." > The argument for federally funded spaceflight ultimately boils down to > "spacecraft as soulcraft," the quasi-religious notion that, as Post columnist > Charles Krauthammer puts it, we go "not for practicality," but "for the > wonder and the glory of it." > Space must be an alluring muse indeed, given that it makes Krauthammer, > normally a hardheaded neoconservative, sound like a yoga instructor gone > lightheaded during a juice fast. > He calls space skeptics "Earth Firsters," deaf to "the music of the spheres." > Apparently there's nothing more "isolationist" than wanting to stay on your > own planet. > Krauthammer's obsession makes sense, in a way, since federally funded > spaceflight is the quintessential neoconservative project: a giant, wasteful > crusade designed to fill Americans' supposedly empty lives with meaning. > Sorry, Charlie: The public's not buying it. A 2010 Rasmussen poll showed that > more Americans think private enterprise should pay for space exploration than > think government should fund it. > By nearly 2-to-1 margins, they also oppose sending federally funded > astronauts to the moon or Mars. As far as Americans are concerned, space is > the ultimate "bridge to nowhere." > It's true that, with a $1.5 trillion deficit, NASA's $18 billion isn't what > stands between us and our fiscal day of reckoning. But every little bit > counts, and this is the rare cut that won't make the public squeal. > Moreover, there's a matter of principle at stake here. The threat of force > lies behind every tax dollar the government collects. You might demand that > your neighbor help defend us against a foreign invader but would you really > hold a gun to his head to help him appreciate "the music of the > spheres"?http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13342
-- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
