ChrisCam Broadsheet

2548.\\ Krauthammer: Closing the New Frontier

NASA is on the chopping block and the US is abdicating space. This is sad and depressing. Not to mention dangerous to our national security.

I happen to think that space travel should be driven by the private sector. But the market isn't there yet. It'll take a few more decades for private industry to get the right mix of cost, performance and safety. Until then the government is the only mechanism for incubating the needed industries and technologies and ongoing research.

And we're totally giving that up. Defeat and retreat. We're leaving control of space to China and Russia because we can't scrounge up $3B extra per year to fund the space program. How much are we spending on porkulus and porkulus II ? Oh that's right, trillions.

Nice work Mr. Obama. You, sir, are no Jack Kennedy.

Reported by Christo the Elder on February 12, 2010 @ 09:38

 TAGGED AS: China, Finance, Krauthammer, NASA, Obama, Politics, Porkulus, Space

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2543.\\ The Next Man on the Moon Will Be Chinese

I don't like profligate spending. I'm against all sorts of government expenditure. I would like to see the space industry dominated by American private enterprise.

However, in eviscerating NASA and providing little to no incentive for the market to fill the void, Mr. Obama has permanently relegated America to second or even third-tier status as a space power. We will have no advanced launch capability. No refueling capability. No mechanism for protecting our dwindling space assets. Our national security absolutely relies on America dominating the near Earth orbital zone. Instead we will now be forced to rely on China, India and Russia for access to space.

Forget about the moon or Mars. Those are now the property of China Inc.

Reported by Christo the Elder on February 2, 2010 @ 09:13

 TAGGED AS: China, NASA, Space

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