More Private Space Coverage

01/12/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

I'm just going to list the articles that at least mention a role for private enterprise in space: bq. (The Economist) Moon-hopping to Marsbq. Ultimately, if NASA is to succeed in human space exploration, it will have to grow its budget substantially, abandon much of its other, valuable work, or ideally find a way of successfully exploiting space commercially. Until now, NASA has been spectacularly unsuccessful in this ambition because it is not designed for this purpose. Any presidential vision ought, then, to include a way of eventually wrestling space activities out of the agencyÂ’s clutches and into the hands of the private sector.

(TechCentralStation) Cowboys on Mars? Glenn Reynolds is a bit more optimistic than the rest of us. He even thinks Bushs may propose a property rights regime: bq. Could our “cowboy” President get behind a Wild West approach to space settlement? He'd be accused of unilateralism, disrespect for other nations, and, of course, of taking a “cowboy approach” to outer space that's sure to infuriate other nations who want to be players but who can't compete along those lines – like, say, the French. Hmm. When you look at it that way, there doesn't seem to be much doubt about what he'll do. Does there?

If that were the case then I'm sure the various 'peeks' that have been snuck by the likes of Keith Cowing and UPI would have mentioned it. Bush only has 4 more years so I highly doubt he'd have the time to put something like this forward.