(From "Access To Energy", April 2003)

Space Travel II

While asbestos - free O-rings and Freon - free insulating foam have apparently crashed two space shuttles and the American government has not managed -- regardless of the many outstanding scientists, engineers, astronauts, and other dedicated pioneers who have dedicated their lives to space exploration -- to extend its accomplishments significantly in space since the last moon landing 30 years ago, free enterprise may now be close to filling this gap.

This hope comes none too soon. The human spirit will look outward to positive accomplishments when it can, and inward toward self - destructive activities if it must. There is no greater hope for the higher aspirations of humankind than the exploration of space. Only a few humans can go, but the rest of humanity can vicariously travel with them as far as the imagination of man can reach.

It is indeed tragic that, in this most important of activities and after such a wonderful beginning was made, government bureaucracy was allowed to infect and impede this adventure.

"Star Wars" is an entertaining movie, but I believe that its central premise is flawed. The endless frontier of space offers a medium that will bring out the best in man, rather than the worst -- and I further believe that those men who travel in space will infect their fellow men on earth with higher values. Their mutual competitors will be the elements of space itself -- rather than each other, and their human ambitions will find no limits in the stars.

"Private Manned Space Plane Unveiled" by Jon Bonne, MSNBC News, April 19, 2003, reports that famous aircraft engineer Burt Rutan has already secretly built a two-stage manned space vehicle that is intended to fly to the edge of space. The first vehicle, called Space Ship One, will fly to 50,000 feet carrying the second, a jet called the White Knight. Both craft have been built and are undergoing tests at low altitude. Rutan allowed reporters to view a flight of Space Ship One to 9,000 feet. White Knight is designed to reach an altitude of 54 miles.

This effort is entirely privately financed. Rutan points out that within the first four years after the Wright Brothers built the 1908 Flyer, aviation grew from 10 pilots to more than 1,000. "I don't care about the benefit. If l'm able to do it with this little company here ... there'll be a lot of other people who will say, 'Yeah, I can do it too'."

Nor is Rutan alone. "Bezos in Space" by Brad Stone, MSNBC News, April 27, 2003, reports that Jeff Bezos, billionaire founder of Amazon.com has founded a company called Blue Origin with the objective of placing a man in space. In addition, Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, and John Carmack, originator of Doom and Quake computer games, are also both building space flight companies.

So, private enterprise is making a serious effort to enter space. The weakness in the effort is not lack of engineers or men with the courage to take risks. The weakness is that federal, state, and local governments now account for more than 50% of all expenditures in the United States. Taxpayers are now less numerous than those who receive tax funds as various forms of welfare.

Those whose earnings are seized by government -- since all government expenditures are financed by money confiscated from those who have earned it -- must fund all of their fixed expenses out of the remainder. Therefore, most of the available private resources for human progress by Americans are lost. The funds for these fledgling space efforts are coming from the microprocessor bubble where some of the initial fortunes -- small fortunes by historical standards -- still exist.

From farming to energy supply, the government taxes those who succeed and spends the money to subsidize those who fail. This is the real reason that so many endeavors -- from the improvement of human health to the exploration of outer space -- have not realized their true potential. Even with this oppressive burden, however, it may be that private technologists will be able to take their first steps into space.

-Arthur Robinson, Access To Energy, April 22003