FROM THE ARCHIVES.

• Position: Human spaceflight in the U.S.; libertarians and space; emerging private space industry

10

YEARS AGO

February 2012

Human spaceflight in America got off on the wrong foot, born as it was in the national Cold War panic over Sputnik and the space race with the Soviet Union. In our rush to beat the godless commies, instead of focusing on the steady long-term establishment of a competitive launch industry that would eventually make spaceflight affordable, Americans used unreliable ballistic missiles to transport people into orbit. With the 'success' of Apollo, false lessons were cemented into place. We achieved John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him to Earth before the decade was done, but in doing so we created a space policy monster.

RAND SIMBERG

A Twinkle of Hope

23

YEARS AGO

February 1999

A desolate planet free of earthly institutions is more appealing to libertarians than it is to the corporate elite, just as the New World was more appealing to the Pilgrims and other contrarians than it was to the European aristocracy. It will take some doing to settle Mars, but libertarians have a crucial advantage. They're not expecting government bureaucrats to do the job. They know better than to count on NASA.

JOHN TIERNEY

Martian Chronicle

37

YEARS AGO

January 1985

NASA's first concern is not to maximize its overall cost-effectiveness but to avoid politically risky errors that could lead Congress to cut its budget. And for NASA's contractors, too, the reflex to avoid political risks is second nature.

'This is caused not simply by individual decisions to reduce risks, regardless of cost,' points out Eric Drexler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'This pattern is ingrained into the structure of government-funded development organizations, into the way they operate.' And Drexler drives home the point: 'There need be no money-wasting devils to result in a devilish waste of money.'

PATRICK COX

Space Entrepreneurs

41

YEARS AGO

November 1981

What does space offer to individuals and firms? Today, indispensable communications relays, weather data, information about earth resources; tomorrow, new benefits such as solar power satellites, industrial and pharmaceutical processing activities, new and more sophisticated communication relays, nonterrestrial sources of raw materials--and, if our hindsight about other new vistas is any indication, possibilities we have not yet even envisioned.

Poised to make the most of the possibilities is an emerging private space industry. Nowadays, it is often...