Ken Parish wonders where next for the US space program.

The News Limited website has an article suggesting that the Columbia space shuttle disaster may have been caused (in the broad sense) by the fact that the shuttles are obsolete, 30 years old technology. An article in Time magazine by Gregg Easterbrook makes the same point, but then goes on to advocate a much smaller scale space program... Personally I think this is unimaginative, defeatist thinking. Dubbya should adopt a JFK-style vision and commit America (preferably jointly with Russia and Japan) to having a man on Mars by 2020. That would mean new generation space shuttles, and either a large scale orbiting space station or a permanent, self-sustaining moonbase as a staging post for missions to Mars.

I don't know, does W. actually have sufficient vision for that? Is he capable of thinking beyond just, you know, nuking Iraq?

Ken also provides us with ten non-political reasons to be anti-American.

posted by James Russell | 7:59 PM