Mr. Simberg succinctly articulates the vision on which a practical space program can be achieved; it is grounded in reality. What is needed an approach that uses the strengths of NASA partnered with the United States private sector. In only this way can we achieve greatness.
Mr. Zubrin’s goal is admirable, but not only is fiscally impossible, it is fiscal insanity. NASA and the U.S. congress has proved to us all, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that only NASA can spend 11.1 billion dollars and only have power point, wicked cgi movies, and the world’s largest model rocket test to show for it.
The government is not made of money. In the coming years, yes, we will start slashing, not cutting, social welfare programs. We have to, or learn to speak Chinese. It behooves us all, now, to start the process of not just going somewhere, like Mr. Zubrin wants, but making a buck once we get there. No flags and footprints. When we get to Mars I want the first man off the lander not to be an astronaut, but a geologist.
We need to make space a place where people, corporations, can make money. If we could see the forest through the trees we would see we have an 18.5 billion dollar budget for space development through exploration. Mr. Simberg’s plan does this while Mr. Zubrin’s plan will not develop the things we need to hold our ground in space.
Apollo was great, but we couldn’t continue because it was fiscally impossible. Lets not make the same mistake twice.
Respectfully,
Andrew Gasser
