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Obama We have a problem

Posted on Feb 08, 2010 in Opinion

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This year is the last for NASA’s space shuttle flights. It is certainly the end of an era and was supposed to be successful at introducing a new form of space travel that could mean another trip to the moon, and maybe even a trip to Mars in the near future.

The problem? President Obama has cancelled all work on the new form of space travel. The U.S. has spent the last five years and about $9 billion designing the Constellation program, its Ares rockets and its Orion crew capsule. These new spacecrafts were supposed to get Americans back on the moon by 2020, but that is not looking possible anymore.

Instead of putting to good use the $9 billion already spent and then spending more money on furthering knowledge of outer space, America will be spending its money on a war that is getting us nowhere and bonuses for company bigwigs that don’t deserve a dime. Do we really value war and corporate waste more than knowledge?

Space is the last place we have left to explore. Earth’s unexplored regions are running out; we either have to go in the dark caves, under the deep seas or above the atmosphere. We have the most to learn from outer space studies — simply because it’s the place, we, as Earthlings know the least about. And don’t forget, outer space is enormous; there are endless possibilities for exploration out there.

Is space exploration really that important, so far as to spend billions of dollars on it? Yes, it is. Earth, though a relatively new planet, is wearing out. Earthlings are using up the planet’s resources at an alarming rate. We are also using up land — many countries are just plain overcrowded, and the population keeps growing.

Pretty soon, we are going to have to find new places to live, whether they are sub-terrestrial, sub-marine or extraterrestrial. The point is, one day people will live in outer space. Maybe it will be in a manmade structure, like the one in the popular cartoon flick, “WALL-E,” or maybe on other planets, the most likely being Mars. This may not happen within the current generation, but it is going to happen.

We have to get prepared for this planetary relocation ahead of time because it is going to take a lot of research, a lot of planning, and a lot of new technology. We have the capabilities of making the necessary technologies to get people back on the moon and onto Mars. With the end of developments on the Constellation program, America and the world has taken a major step backward in learning about outer space resources.

Instead of developing the Constellation program, Obama wants NASA to piggyback on the private sector of space exploration, which NASA actually thinks will get astronauts farther into space than the shuttles do, but still not to the moon as soon as the Constellation program would have.

There is good news, however. Obama did increase NASA’s budget for the next five years by $6 billion. However, with the end of the Constellation program, what will that money be good for?

Yes, NASA has been, and is currently, doing some great work in space exploration and research. However, the Mars rover recently got stuck in a sand trap, rendering it almost useless, and as was mentioned here earlier, the space shuttle program is ending this year. Combined with the halt of the Constellation program, NASA has money burning a hole in its pocket and a limited number of places to spend it.