Space.com Interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson

02/09/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

Robert Roy Britt (Space.com) has an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Its mostly harmless. I particularly like how he downplays the lack of a modern day Carl Sagan. I loved Cosmos as a kid. As a kid. Its to bad he, like many scientists, ignored economics. But the part that stood out was this:

bq.

Tyson: I like to take a broader view. Early pilot-engineers, who invented or designed their own airplanes, were supported by the government in the form of a guaranteed load of airmail. That enabled these people to be more and more innovative, to be more competitive to try and get the government contract. What emerged from this were airplanes that no longer required the government support because they could then fly paying passengers.

In developing all the technology necessary to go to Mars, stuff is going to get invented. Look at the government investment in the Global Positioning System (GPS). It was initially a military utility, but now there are commercial GPS receivers in cars and even in wristwatches.

These are whole industries that have been spawned and given unto private enterprise to then make money and create jobs.

If it means we can one day get into space so cheaply that you can set up a hotel, fine, let it be so. If it's a hotel with a zero-g theme park, fine. Business will go wherever it thinks it can make a buck. Right now space is kind of expensive, so only governments can do it.

The emphasis is mine. If governments keep doing it then it will always be expensive. I have a bottle of champagne ready for when Burt Rutan, John Carmack, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Dennis Laurie, Kistler Aerospace, and Walt Anderson prove him wrong.