IF AMERICA ELECTS A DEMOCRAT IN 2020, FORGET ABOUT RETURNING TO THE MOON

Space as a political issue is usually second tier in American politics. However, that fact doesn’t mean that it is unimportant or that it doesn’t come up during presidential campaigns. With the 2020 presidential season starting in full swing just 11 months before the actual year begins, the time is ripe to start thinking about how the US space program’s course will be affected by the election’s outcome.

Update: This gem from the most famous socialist in the world, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

"For what it’s worth, I don’t think expanding public imagination is a “new style.” It is a return to the Democratic Party that went to the moon, passed the Civil Rights Act, + strove for the Great Society."

It would be wonderful if Democrats favored going to the moon again.

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One has to hand it to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She is always great for an eye-popping quote. Fox News reports that she was at an event celebrating Martin Luther King Day where her musings turned apocalyptic.

“Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up, and we’re like: ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change, and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?'” She also said that the problem of climate change is their “World War II.”

“Let us suppose, as a thought experiment, climate change really is a global problem that needs addressing by government policy. It may not destroy the world in 2031 or any other time, but the combination of increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather will be a challenge — at least for the purposes of discussion.

“The world should pursue space exploration if it hopes to transition away from fossil fuels, a major cause of climate change.“

There's more than one way to go back to the moon is apparently a response to my NASA wants to go back to the moon the hard way Unfortunately it does not engage my main points that using the Space Launch System to go back to the moon may not be the easiest way.

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Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz finds himself in an interesting position in the new Congress.

He has been a champion of NASA and commercial space since he first entered the Senate six years ago. The last midterms, however, saw the exit of a number of space enthusiasts from Congress. Democrat and Republican Reps. Lamar Smith, John Culberson, Dana Rohrabacher and Sen. Bill Nelson have retired or been retired to private life.

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The dinosaurs did not have a space program. However, human beings, who arose to dominate the Earth after the dinosaurs’ demise, do have one and therefore the ability to save themselves if another world-killing asteroid approaches.

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Meanwhile Rand Simberg leaps the length of his chain and lies about my position on commercial space.

Meanwhile, Mark Whittington continues to fear the yellow menace:

"The landing is a remarkable achievement. It illustrates Beijing’s burning ambition to become the supreme superpower on Earth, in part by conquering space. India and a private group in Israel are planning their own moon landings early in 2019. NASA is due to sponsor commercial lunar landings as part of President Trump’s return to the moon initiative in the next year or so.

"The prize of the new space race is the moon’s natural resources and control of the high frontier for all practical purposes."

The moon is a big place. No one nation is going to dominate it. And it’s a long way from a robotic lander, regardless of which side it lands on, to a lunar base. Mark continues to operate under the delusion that we can (or should) do Apollo again. Lunar resources will be developed privately, if at all. It certainly won’t happen by a government that has elections every two years.

I am fully on board with commercial partnerships regarding the moon and have extensively written to that effect for many years. He should also note my current piece in the Washington Examiner where I critique both the Gateway and the SLS. I championed Zubrin’s Moon Direct idea.

Regarding the Chinese I can only note that they don’t play well with others on Earth so cannot be expected to play well with others on the moon. The moon may be a big place but the poles are the important parts. The country that controls them controls access to the solar system.

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