Monday, July 11, 2011

NASA Adrift: The Last Journey of the Space Shuttle--- But What's Next?



The Flight of Apollo 11


To the casual observer like myself, NASA has been adrift without lofty goals since the end of the Apollo program. NASA aficionados will no doubt disagree with this statement. However, with the end of the space shuttle program everyone is asking the question-- what's next-- and the silence is deafening. Being a government agency, NASA must get its vision and goals from political appointees and politicians who tend to be backward-looking reactionaries rather than forward-looking visionaries. There's much speculation that NASA has run its course and space exploration will now pass into the hands of the private sector-- companies like Virgin Galatic or SpaceX. Will the US squander its lead in space technology? Let me help the politicians out: In this decade NASA should build a permanent space station on the moon in preparation for colonization of the moon.

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you are calling NASA on the carpet for their obvious lack of vision. The Space Shuttle was pretty cool for late '70s technology. But, NASA has been asleep at the switch for the last 30 years and now we have no succession platform in place. Now, we are going to lease Russian rockets? JFK must be turning over in his grave.

    I believe NASA should be developing new methods of propulsion. Watching the shuttle lift off with a half million gallons of fuel is flat ridiculous. Safer and more efficient methods should be considered, before we sacrifice any more astronauts. Rail guns or vertical launch vehicles could easily remedy this and the X-Prize has proven it.

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  2. I'm all for progress and pushing American space superiority forward, but wonder if NASA has simply run its course, is devoid of new ideas and leadership, and now the private sector will at best become a partner in the space effort or at worst completely take over the country's space efforts.

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