The view from space

Amid the debates on healthcare, banking oversight, deficit spending, Iran, Israel/Palestinian problems, and the like, one subject that has received little attention is the recent decision by President Obama to cut back the space program by cancelling the project for Americans to go back to the moon. Obama instead wants to task NASA with dealing more with Global Warming and have the next space mission to be one to Mars in a few decades. This will supposedly save billions of dollars of federal spending in the next decade.

It is indeed strange that the place that Obama chooses to cut is one of the few where the task is uniquely suited to be carried out by the federal government. In many respects, the space program, like defense or border control can only be done effectively by the feds. Further, the space program is one of the few federal endeavors of the last 50 years that has paid enormous dividends to the country. Millions of today's jobs are a direct offshoot of the space program.

Let's take a look at just a few of the things that have come from the space program. Probably the biggest benefit from NASA is the computer chip. During the 1960's, NASA had to come up with a way to minaturize the computers needed to help fly the Apollo spacecraft that went to the Moon and back. NASA spent a great amount of money to conceive and then produce tiny silicon wafers that were made into computer circuits. Every computer in the world today uses these chips. Now it may be that chips like these would have been designed at some point, but they would have come decades later and perhaps in another country, thereby denying the USA enormous economic growth and advantage. Indeed, think of all the other devices like cell phones, ipods, cars, and the like that use these chips to great advantage.

A second invention stemming from the space program is closely related to the first; it is the computer network. On the Apollo command module there were a number of computers that had to be coordinated so that they could function as a unit together. NASA's need (and federal funding) was the impetus for the whole science of computer networks. Again, imagine what a world without computer networks would be like. There would be no internets, no ATM's, no e-mail; the list goes on and on. Again, computer networks would probably have been invented at some point, but we would be decades behind where we are now and the USA would not have its current advantage in these fields.

A third advantage is just in the scope of our scientific knowledge. Imagine what has been discovered by the Hubble telescope. Think of what we know about the moon from our visits there. Think of the increased knowledge of the earth from our satellite investigations.

A fourth advantage comes in our military strength. While NASA is not military, the discoveries made in engineering for various space missions have proven invaluable to the development of our military capabilities.

This is what Obama wants to defund. Thousands of jobs will be lost. These are not government clerks, but rather scientists, angineers and affiliated personnel who have toiled together for years to carry out these missions. After the USA spent billions to put this team together, it is crazy for Obama to simply throw them away.