40 Years Waisted, And Economic Stimulis That Works

NASA, the USA, and consequently the world has wasted 40 years (actually 37, since December 14, 1972 when Harrison "Jack" Schmitt and Eugene A. Cernan became the last man to walk on the moon) of progress, failing to go any further, much less returning that far.
Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin is among those who think NASA is off target with its current plans to reach the moon by 2020. Aldrin, the second human to walk on the moon's surface during the historic 1969 Apollo 11 mission, calls the new race to the moon a "glorified rehash of what we did 40 years ago."



Instead of targeting the moon, Aldrin outlines a manned spaceflight plan for NASA that would use the moon as little more than a staging area for a 2025 manned landing on the Martian moon Phobos. What exploration takes place on the moon, Aldrin has urged, should be jobbed out to an international consortium.


Writing in the August edition of Popular Mechanics, Aldrin said, "As I approach my 80th birthday, I'm in no mood to keep my mouth shut any longer when I see NASA heading down the wrong road, and that's exactly what I see today." Aldrin further wrote of NASA's lunar plans, "The agency's current Vision for Space Exploration will waste decades and hundreds of billion dollars ... Instead of a stepping-stone to Mars, NASA's current lunar plan is a detour."



I have 3 points to make about manned space flight investment.

1. Space exploration is one of the few things that the government can spend money on that will actually create wealth. By "creating wealth" what is meant is that the money spent will create enough economic growth to cause the tax revenue generated to be greater that the amount of money spent. How does this happen? Not from the direct high tech employment. Not from the secondary trickle down from the moneys such employed peoples spend their money on. Not from the displacement of jobs in the commercial marketplace to replace the direct employed people. It is from the economics of commercialization of technology spin-offs. Examples are Sorbent Hemodialysis System, Teflon, Tang, Artificial Heart.... (see http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/apollo.htm for an official listing)

2. It is sometimes argued that such technological advancement would have happened faster and more effectively if the money would not have been spent by the government. This in general is true. However, with space exploration the government is spending money on R&D for items that have no immediate commercial value and therefore companies would therefore not invest in them. Additionally, it spends money on technologies that are beyond the affordability of companies otherwise (since it has to pay for expenses first, a company spends R&D money as a percentage of its gross profits, not its income). An example of technology time line being beyond the reach of investors vision is the 1960 development of the "Electrolytic Silver Ion Cell" for water purification without chemicals. It has now been marketed since 1985 by Carefree Clearwater LTD for pools and spas (Clear eyes and no more green hair or dangerous chemicals). As a note, copper silver ionization is proved in studies to be effective against E. coli, Pseudomonas, Legionella Pneumphilas (Legionnaires' disease), Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Salmonella, and other pathogens, some of which have been proven resilient even to high levels of chlorine, and only took 25 years to reach the commercial marketplace.

Despite the argument for the above about government spending, I am rooting for Virgin Galactic to be successful. I would like be able to able to build my retirement home on Mars. I think Bill Gates and Larry Elison are about rich enough to pull that off if they started tomorrow morning, but I'm no where near close to that.

3. Discovery is part of mans nature, it is something we(mankind/America) must do as part of our destiny. The resulting learned knowledge and socioeconomic impact to of leading the world into space is incalculable. Columbus set sail to find bring back spices to Spain on the assumption that the world was round and not flat. The expense to government of Spain was similar to going to Mars as a percentage Spain's wealth at the time. Spain went from practically bankrupt to being the worlds leading super power overnight. Sailing off, to "fall the edge of the world" was far more dangerous and a much greater unknown. If we don't it will, eventually be someone else will reap the rewards, and they may not represent peace and freedom.


"Here man completed his first explorations of the moon. December 1972 AD. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind" -Plaque left on the moon by Apollo 17