[FPSPACE] What should NASA be?[Scanned by MAIL]

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Matula, Thomas L. [mailto:MATULAT at uhv.edu] 
 Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 9:59 PM

  [snip]

> NASA right now is torn in three directions. First you have 
> the strong science influence wanting to make space and NASA a 
> preserve for science only. 
> 
> Second you have folks want to make it an welfare agency for 
  [snip]

> Then you have NASA as a foreign policy tool, building ISS to 
> keep its agreements with its partners and attempting to find
> a justification for a project that really served no purpose
  [snip]

> I think a better solution is returning NASA to its 
> traditional role. SO what I think should happen with NASA is:
> 
> First, space science should be spun-off as a separate 
> organization, much as NSF was created after WWII.  With it 
  [snip]
 
> Next, after core completion the U.S. portion of the ISS 
> should be turned into a national laboratory and run just as 
  [snip]

> Finally NASA would be free to return to original mission of 
> technology development and human exploration of space, just 
> as it was during NASA's most successful years under Apollo. 

 For me to see you fail to appreciate the long-term strategic
 need that is NASA's justification as a government agency for
 being in the business of manned space flight.

 History repeats itself in cycles. People in the USA are for
 understandable reasons hostile towards the principles that
 guided the colonial masters of Old Europe. Yet the conquest
 of the solar system is likely to mirror aspects of the
 colonization of other continents by the European powers.

 In subtle ways the world was divided between these powers
 large and small. War between them was not the normal state,
 rather they shared a common pride in being flag-bearers for 
 Christianity, royalty, and civilization.

 The Moon and Mars ( espcially if made habitable ) could 
 eventually be carved up among countries in a process
 mirroring both the actual political divisions on Earth
 and the process long ago, when European monarchs took
 possession of Africa, America, Asia, and Australia.

 Therefore NASA will very much remain a foreign policy tool,
 not for projects that 'serve no purpose' as you put it so
 uninspiringly, but for the protection of vital US American
 interests in outer space.

 Once the Chinese have built tent camps all over the He3-rich
 craters near the lunar poles, it's too late for the USA to
 trust the Marines to kick ass.

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark