Writing in USA Today, Buzz Aldrin warns that the “U.S. again risks losing space race”:
If the USA is to retain its leadership in space, it soon must take bold steps to modernize its civil-space infrastructure, including reorganizing and updating its space infrastructure and eliminating hurdles imposed by the government. NASA and the Defense Department need greater vigor in making capital improvements to our space infrastructure, in building and flying rather than doing endless studies.
The best way to do this is to create a senior-level space advisory council structured to provide unbiased input to decision-makers. A space advisory council — independent of the numerous government agencies currently involved — could provide the guidance needed to ensure the United States’ continued leadership in space.
I’m with you, Buzz. Whatever works. But please, no Tom Hanks. Okay?
Just because.
I’m reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars, set about 25-30 years from now. Would be great to see a manned mission to Mars, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to see one unless we get off the dime.
Yes, I agree. No Hanks. Not fer nuthin’.
Love KSR’s Mars trilogy (except for his annoying obsession with kava kava). A more likely future for our nation is described in his, The Wild Shore, though.
We’ll be lucky to get to Mars before half of this century is gone alas.
I liked Ben Bova’s “Privateers.” The US government, unable to compete with the Russians, privatizes its space program.
What we need is for space to be profitable. Then watch as the anti-globos scream like stuck pigs and place themselves squarely athwart the space capitalists. They’ll get stampeded under by private enterprise.