100 Years Ago, It Would Simply Have Been Inconceivable

100 years ago, if someone were to chart a course for going into space and landing on the Moon, it would have been a rational supposition to assume that the nation which made the effort would have been Great Britain, drawing on the resources of its vast empire. That supposition died nearly seventy years ago, when it was obvious to all concerned that the United States was the nation which had the resources and people to carry out such an intense project.

Now there is going to be yet another review of the manned spaceflight program. For that is all that we do nowadays: Make plans and review them when the time to start ponying up serious cash is near. President Bush put forth a plan to stop using the Shuttles and to build a new series of rockets to permit manned deep space missions. The bill for that, conveniently, would have come due this decade.

Here are my predictions: First, the Ares I/V programs will be funded, if at all, just above survival level. There will be no serious push, certainly nothing close to the Apollo Program, to fly them.

Second, when another human walks on the surface of the Moon or walks on Mars, his or her primary language will not be English.

On the scale that we spend money in this country, manned spaceflight is chump change. Why we cannot muster the will to do this, to keep exploring with humans, is beyond my comprehension. One thing is clear, and it has been true since 1963: Our government is populated with small-minded people.