Saturday - February 08, 2003
A Space Shuttle that Looks Like America?
A black, a Jew, two women and one of them is
Indian, and an Israeli. Sounds like James Watt's description of the Columbia
crew. Normally, I wouldn't think much of this. I'm sure these people are quite
talented and had a purpose in being
aboard.
Or do they? Why is a school
teacher scheduled on the next shuttle mission? Why was a school teacher on the
Challenger when it exploded so spectacularly 17 short years ago? What the heck
is a foreign national doing on our space ship?
I once knew a very nice woman who worked at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is a rocket scientist and she was very upset with
the Challenger crash because it upset her plans to go on the space shuttle. But
the problem was that she is a paraplegic. It was her goal to be the first
paraplegic in space.
Now, I find this
to be a very bizarre goal. It's natural to want to go into space, our thirst for
adventure is one of the greatest human traits, but what is so special about
putting a crippled person in space? What is so special about sending a school
teacher into space? Heck, the only baccalaureate degree easier than a teacher's
degree is psychology, and that's not saying much. Teachers are generally the
lowest in intelligence of any college graduate, though there are exceptions, so
what does it prove to send a teacher into space? The stated reason is so that
children are inspired. Inspired to get the lowliest education and still be
allowed into the most premiere program the government offers? Some lesson that
is.
Now, if the crippled person is
going into space with private funding then I'm all for it, but the space shuttle
is supposed to be a utilitarian vehicle and I'm footing the bill. I only want
the best and brightest to earn their way aboard. Otherwise, why shouldn't I be
there too? I'm not a septagenarian senator. I'm not a school teacher. I'm better
than either of those categories.
One of
the crewmembers on Columbia is best remembered for making a big mistake on an
earlier mission. Why wasn't she cashiered from the corps? There are lots and
lots of astronauts and aspiring astronauts out there that would love to replace
her. Could it be simply because she's a woman? I wonder how many blunders a
female school teacher would be
allowed?
There is only one thing we can
conclude from all of this. The space shuttle essentially flies itself and a
talented crew really isn't critical to its operations. You can't do the job with
monkeys, but you can do it with just about anyone, and so manning the vessel has
become an exercise in political correctness, political patronage, and
pork.
Has anyone else noticed that
almost before all the pieces of Columbia had fallen to the ground politicians
like Texas' Kay Bailey Hutchison were calling for more NASA funding? Only
government programs use failure as evidence for a need to continue a program and
spend even more money on it.
The
shuttle program must be ended. It was a cockamamey idea that didn't work and it
has long ago stopped being anything other than a very expensive vehicle to
satiate the porcine appetites of politicians for big spending and big government
programs.
Near Earth space missions are
now economically vibrant and profitable. All the shuttle has done is under-cut
private satellite launch services by subsidizing a bloated, inefficient
bureaucracy.
NASA and the United States
have conquered near Earth as a frontier. It is still dangerous, but no longer
unknown. If NASA is to continue being a positive part of our society, it should
concentrate on exploration of areas that aren't so well known. It should go to
Mars with much more ambition with the goal of putting men on its ground. And
once that is done reliably, it should leave it to private enterprise to use and
begin to explore other places.
The only
thing the Columbia crash teaches us is that which we already knew. Government
has no business in providing mundane services that can be done better by private
enterprise. Government should be confined to those things which require the use
of force, like the military, and leave the rest of us alone.
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