I don\u2019t like billionaires taking joy rides in space.<\/p>\n
This is not an objection to space exploration. I\u2019m all in favor of space exploration. I grew up with the U.S. space program. I went to church with the people who put Neil Armstrong on the Moon.<\/p>\n
Also, I write science fiction. I believe in the human desire to figure out what\u2019s going on in the universe.<\/p>\n
Further, I\u2019ve never believed that our choices are between exploring the universe and taking care of people here on Earth. We can and should do both.<\/p>\n
What I object to is billionaire-driven space exploration. <\/p>\n
First of all, private individuals should not be running space programs. Governments and consortiums of governments should be developing and funding such projects. These programs are too important to be operated at the whim of some guy who figured out how to make a fortune in an economic system set up to tilt the playing field in his favor.<\/p>\n
Yes, some businesses need to be brought into the process. There\u2019s a lot of complicated work to do. But private enterprise should not be making the final decisions and those who run those companies should not be taking advantage of their position to give themselves thrills.<\/p>\n
(For the record, I\u2019m not real happy about billionaires running other enterprises that should be managed for the collective good. The current attempt by the owner of the Oakland As to dictate a new stadium without giving back anything of importance to the community is an excellent case in point.)<\/p>\n
Secondly, joy rides in space don\u2019t expand our knowledge. Yeah, I\u2019m glad Jeff Bezos took Wally Funk up in his rocket \u2014 she should have been in space in the 1960s \u2014 but that still doesn\u2019t make this a useful expedition.<\/p>\n
And no, I\u2019m not thrilled by the fact that Space X is doing trips that should be done by NASA. The government hands them money but doesn\u2019t control what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
Thirdly, no one should be so rich that they can put together a private space launch. I shudder to think of the billionaires who are going to decide they have the high tech answer to climate change and go off and do something half-cocked.<\/p>\n
These projects need the balance of collective action. Science has never been a one-man (why yes, I said \u201cman\u201d for a reason) show, despite the way we\u2019re taught about it. We keep giving prizes to one person for something that thousands made possible.<\/p>\n
I can think of a lot of other problems with our current billionaires, some of which could be solved with a good wealth tax and an overhaul of the tax laws in general. But mostly I object to individuals doing things that should be done collectively.<\/p>\n
I want to see a robust U.S. space program \u2014 NASA is way under-funded. I want the U.S. government to take a stake when it funds all kinds of scientific efforts by private companies.<\/p>\n
I want to see much more international cooperation. And yes, I know that the U.S. Apollo program was driven by competition with the Soviet Union. Making it the equivalent of \u201cwar\u201d got it funded.<\/p>\n
Watching so-called world leaders continue to mangle responses to the pandemic does make me question whether we can develop that sort of international cooperation, but I will continue to hope that some day people will become civilized enough to do that.<\/p>\n
But meanwhile, let\u2019s not settle for billionaire joy rides. Let\u2019s get a real space program going again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t like billionaires taking joy rides in space. This is not an objection to space exploration. I\u2019m all in favor of space exploration. I grew up with the U.S. space program. I went to church with the people who put Neil Armstrong on the Moon. Also, I write science fiction. I believe in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,41],"tags":[302,304,303],"class_list":["post-1379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","category-space","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-nasa","tag-space-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}