US gives up on space

Gwynne Dyer writes:

In the real world, the United States is giving up on space, although it is trying hard to conceal its retreat. Three Americans with a very special status – all have commanded missions to the Moon – have made their dismay public.

In an open letter Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13 and Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, condemned President Barack Obama’s plans for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as the beginning of a “long downhill slide to mediocrity” for the United States.

What has changed?

The letter was timed to coincide with Obama’s visit to Cape Canaveral to defend his new policy, which abandons the goal of returning to the Moon by 2020, or indeed ever.

The idea of a permanent base to the Moon was a good investment in the future.

So for the next decade, at least, the United States will be an also-ran in space, while the new space powers forge rapidly ahead.

And even if some subsequent administration should decide it wants to get back in the race, it will find it almost impossible to catch up.

And that is why the first man on Mars will be probably Chinese or Indian, not American.

I suspect he will be right. And the nationalism that will surround that will be massive.