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Election 2012

Space Policy Discussed in Florida Debate

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
January 24, 2012
Filed under , ,

Romney, Gingrich talk spaceflight at latest Republican debate, Foxboro
“Both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich stressed the importance of space exploration for the United States, saying a strong space program helps develop key technologies and inspires young people to study science and engineering. But during the debate, held at the University of South Florida in Tampa, neither candidate said giving NASA more money was the right way forward.”

GOP contenders want private sector to rescue space program, Washington Post
“Romney says the space exploration should be a priority. He’s calling on NASA to partner with the military and private business interests and educational institutions to help pay for it. Gingrich wants to offer the private sector special prizes. He says that such incentives, as opposed to a government spending, would help Americans go back to the moon, explore Mars, and develop extraterrestrial space exploration.”
GOP Wants Private Sector To Rescue Space Program, CBS DC
“Gingrich wants to offer the private sector special prizes. He says that such incentives, as opposed to a government spending, would help Americans go back to the moon, explore Mars, and develop extraterrestrial space exploration. Gingrich says the prizes could create a romantic and exciting future for the space program.”

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4 responses to “Space Policy Discussed in Florida Debate”

  1. Joseph says:
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    Typical politicians–all talk. Translation to space enthusiasts, you are on your own.

  2. Monroe2020 says:
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    I take it neither of these men have any clue about the SLS/Orion MPCV.  Oh well. 

  3. Paul Roberts says:
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    OK, well, that seems to show that neither candidate has any kind of clue about the space business.

    Partnerships with the military and business for exploration? Really? The military has no interest in locations above the GEO belt, they’re just too far away to be relevant, so what substantial interest would they have in exploration? Technology development would be abuot the only thing, but that’s not exploration.

    Commercial companies invest in repeat business or resource ownership. Without a firm grasp of where money can be made in space or the promise of ownership and exploitation in exchange for discovery, business never invests just in discovery.

    Current international space agreements prevent private ownership of resources/land off-earth, so where is their incentive to invest in one time exploration? For one-time exploration (withuot ownership), as would be needed to ascertain exactly what _might_ be commercially exploitable, investment doesn’t pay. That’s why, traditionally, governments have paid to explore and then gifted or sold the information to those who then go out to exploit. Or they promise the rights to those who do explore. Those are the two mechanisms that have been proven to work.

    Now, if either of them had declared that they would support unilateral changes to the space treaties to permit companies to own and profit from off-earth projects and/or the ZGZT philosophies, that would have shown some grasp of the realities of space exploration/industry.

    As it is, we’re still on our own.

    Meh!

    Paul

  4. physiker121 says:
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    Sounds like they are totally clueless.