Lost in Space or just plain lost

01/25/13 23:11:00    

By Michael Mealling

Earlier this week the Baker Institute held a discussion entitled LOST IN SPACE: THE NEED FOR A DEFINITIVE U.S. SPACE POLICY. Here's the video of the event:

George Abbey's opening remark didn't leave much hope for a useful session: “Come this July it'll be two years since an American spacecraft has been up to visit that station.” Apparently SpaceX's Dragon doesn't qualify as either American or a spacecraft. Soon after that John Logsdon makes the comment that Nixon correctly didn't want space to be such a large ongoing expenditure but instead wanted it to fade into the regular background of political spending.

With rare exceptions, “definitive US policies” for industry are rare. One current exception is the President's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. The policies that have come from that have been, as expected, politically driven. But in no case has the Partnership said that the government should start manufacturing stuff, building equipment to manufacture stuff, or create any agency to be in charge of making stuff. There are agencies such as the FCC that regulate certain industries but, with the excpetion of NPR/PBS, none of those agencies actually does the thing it regultes. The FAA doesn't build airplane, The FDA doesn't make drugs, grow crops, or make food. The DOT doesn't make cars or drive paving machinery. The Department of Education doesn't hire teachers.

So why, in a world with Elon Musks and Bob Bigelows, does the Federal Government need a “Definitve Space Policy”?

As I watched this video again I came to the conclusion that it no one really cares anymore. The only people who care are feeding at a tax payer funded trough that is going to continue to shrink while industry moves ahead aggressively. Five years ago I would have gotten really animated about the views of the panel members. But these days I don't see those views having any effect on actions.

yawn