Loading ...The End of Dreams, America, What Happened?
By Ironmike | July 22, 2008
China plans to conduct its first manned spacewalk in October 2008. The ESA (European Space Agency) is building a roving robot to land on Mars. India recently launched a record 10 satellites into space on a single rocket!
Space, like Earth, is globalizing. Unlike on Earth, America’s competitive edge is slipping drastically. We boast a public that couldn’t even spell “Jupiter” if you gave them a thesaurus. We boast teenagers and young adults that only know of “Uranus” through sophomoric toilet-humor. Since the mid-1980’s, when missions to space became so ubiquitous that they seemed to be as ordinary as transoceanic voyages, the American public has lost its support and enthusiasm for space. Sure the 1950’s and 1960’s era space program had the drama of competition with the Evil Empire, but today’s achievements in space are no less significant nor less dangerous. And yet where is America? Where is the spirit that Kennedy invoked when he called us to go to the moon in peace for all mankind? Where is that divine spark that the whole world shared when Armstrong and Aldrin landed on that dust-filled ball just a few million miles away from our home?
It’s gone. I wonder if it ever truly existed in the first place.
Although the United States remains dominant in most space-related fields- and owns half the military satellites orbiting Earth right now- experts say the nation’s superiority is diminishing rapidly. NASA’s budget is down 20% in inflation-adjusted terms since 1992. And it doesn’t help that the only time people seem to care about our heroes in space is when they die in orbital disasters like USS Challenger and USS Columbia.
Futron of Bethesda, Md is a company that supports space exploration and one of their recent studies shows that China, the EU, Japan, India, Russia, South Africa, Israel, Canada, and Australia are taking the giant leaps and bounds of technology that onced defined NASA and its innovators. Right now, Japan and China both have satellites orbiting the moon. Many believe China will be the first nation to return human beings to the moon. Australia, Israel, Canada, and Russia are all undergoing massively ambitious and technically brilliant space-probe programs. India wants desperately to catch up to China as much as we wanted to catch up to the Soviet Union. Space exploration is a huge deal in India which is very nationalistic and eager to cement itself within the ranks of the world’s Great Powers. Can you remember the last time Americans were this proud of a national endeavour that had little to do with warfare and a whole lot to do with technological and scientific breakthroughs? I can’t cause I wasn’t born in the 60’s and frankly, the space program and the nationalism that circulated around it were the only good things to come out of the 60’s - an era that gave us comparatively nothing else except bad hairdos, drugs, liberalism, and Woodstock.
I, for one, am dying to see America do something great again.
The first Chinese astronaut in space was Yang Liwei, blasted into orbit in 2003 on the Shenzhou 5, making China one of only 3 nations to put men into space on their own without assistance. The Chinese have a carefully thought-out space program that will bring them to parity with Russia and the USA. They’re investing to make China the number 2 world power not so much for miltiary might but because deals, advantages, soft power benefits, and economic growth naturally flow toward world leaders. Astronauts from the ESA, who fly out of NASA spacecraft or out of ESA-launched vehichles in the French Colony of Guyana and Suriname in South America, are extremely popular in their home countries. Whereas Americans’ abilities to name famous astrounauts stops (if they’re lucky) with Jim Lovell from Apollo 13 and that’s only because Tom Hanks played him!
Fortunately, the American space shuttle is still the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built. Nonetheless, NASA hasn’t produced any moments of brilliance for a long time (the late 90’s) and we are coming close to a 5-year gap wherein NASA will design the newest space vehicle (the space plane) during which time, no Americans will be able to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on American-made designs.
President Bush announced an ambitious new vision for the space program that was hugely applauded in the scientific and space exploration communities (much to the chagrin of Democrats) but priorities in Iraq and Afghanistan have diverted his attention understandably. Nevertheless, NASA’s $17 billion budget consumes only 0.6 % of the federal budget. Diverting some money from our military space hardware systems would hardly dent the US’s edge in space weapons (which is insurmountable for decades to come, don’t believe that crap you may read about China’s “super space satellite-killing rocket”). We need to get back in the civilian space race. We need to do it now.
American dominance in space exists in only two areas. Our privatized space exploration industry still earns 75 % of world revenues and we have more military satellites and “space weapons” than any nation on Earth- an edge we will have for decades to come. However, Russia and China have significantly increased their military space programs while making greater inroads into the civilian non-profit and corporate sectors.
Concerned about the Chinese use of space technology, Congress ramped up restrictions on rocket and satellite technology sales in the private sector and placed them under the cumbersome regime of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) agency within the UN (yes, the Democratic Congress gave the UN control of regulating how our space companies trade space technologies). Worse still, Congress now mandates the State Department waste its organizational time and manpower by reviewing each transaction of space technologies that have dual scientific and miltiary uses. The results are clear. American production and sale of space technologies has been stifled by the new restrictions while foreign production of satellites and space technologies has soared. Foreign governments that need commercial satellites launched are ignoring NASA (forcing NASA to earn less revenue) and turning to the ESA, the Japanese, and the Chinese.
The time has come to remove some of the more restrictive measures on the sale of space technologies and for the federal government to increase NASA’s budget. We need to get back in the saddle. The amount of scientific breakthroughs in physics, computer science, medicine, botany, climatology, meteorology, astronomy, military technology, oceanography, etc. are boundless. America should dominate space, in my opinion, because no country can serve mankind better. Would China, Russia, or Israel be so eager to share the wealth from space exploration as America has for the last 50 years?
We should be exploring further and deeper into space and contemplating the development of technologies that can terraform worlds (it would help us solve pollution and population growth here on Earth), put a person on Mars, and exploit the resources and material contained on the Moon and in asteroids. It’s sounds expensive and sci-fi-ish but if you think we shouldn’t do it then maybe you think America shouldn’t be great anymore.
Topics: International | No Comments »
Which Turnpike Exit is Gotham City?
By Matt Rooney | July 22, 2008
I joined the throng of movie-goers this past weekend to see The Dark Knight and, never being one to just let myself enjoy something mindlessly, I immediately began contemplating the parallels between Bruce Wayne’s world and our own. Batman’s fictional home of Gotham City has developed in the popular culture to represent the dualistic nature of American urban civilization. America’s cities are monuments of man, featuring centers of higher learning, architectural achievement and international commerce. Our cities remain the first stop of immigrants on their journey towards a better life in a country that was premised on, among other aspirations, the hope for a better world. Yet Gotham, once a prosperous metropolis and the home of the world-class tech firm Wayne Enterprises, has devolved into a city wracked by crime, corruption, and a pervading sense of despair. Sound familiar?
It is all too obvious that Gotham is based not only on New York or Chicago but rather the entire State of New Jersey and anywhere else that the American dream has failed to reach full bloom. Consider the similarities… Read On
Topics: Other | 1 Comment »
Two Tickets to Paradise
By Matt Rooney | July 15, 2008
Governor Corzine is heading to Israel this weekend for trade talks with various Israeli leaders and businessmen. To be fair, most of New Jersey’s contemporary governors have visited Israel on “trade missions”. Israel is actually one of New Jersey’s top ten trading partners. However, the last governor who visited the Holy Land came back with more than just a trade agreement:
No kidding, Andrea…
Matt Rooney is a Rutgers Law student, Acting Chairman of the Camden County Young Republicans and co-founder of SaveJersey.com. Matt can be reached at mattrooney@savejersey.com.
Topics: Other | No Comments »
Veepstakes Predictions
By Vinny | July 13, 2008
In the 2000 election, we found out it was Dick Cheney around July 24. Joe Lieberman was chosen as Gore’s running mate on August 7, 2000. John Edwards was officially picked July 6th, 2004.
Being that today is July 13, I would have to say that we will find out the running mates pretty soon. Since there probably isn’t much time left, I wanted to make my predictions. This way, if I am right, I can say “I told you so.” 
You can comment on this post and put your picks.
My Picks:
1. Marsha Blackburn (TN-7) 
Marsha Blackburn has been a member of Congress since 2003. She attractive and a very strong conservative. I hate to play the gender card, but I believe that McCain needs a female vice president on the ticket. She would be appealing to disenfranchised conservatives and to women at the same time.
2. Rob Portman - 
He is young enough (52) to contrast McCain and has a ton of experience under his belt. He served in Congress for 12 years. He was the United States Trade Representative and Director of the Office of Management and Budget. McCain is largely seen as the “National Security candidate.” Portman would boost the ticket by bringing his experience, expertise, and credentials in the economics area. He is also from a very important swing state (Ohio). No Republican has won the Presidency without taking Ohio in a very long time.
Those are my suggestions for who he should pick. Something tells me that McCain will pick Romney.
Topics: Republican Party, Presidential Race | 6 Comments »
Good Intentions Pave the Road to Big Government
By Matt Rooney | July 10, 2008
It has been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This should be the most important maxim in New Jersey politics, as it explains how most politicians end up occupying our little extension of hell (the statehouse district in Trenton).
I have no doubt that Libertarians are genuinely distressed over the GOP’s failure to enact the Goldwater/Reagan vision of limited governance. The Libertarian intent is to begin anew, much like how the Republican Party emerged to replace the Whigs in opposition to the Democrat oligarchs of the Antebellum South. Nevertheless, I cannot help but make three less-than-complimentary observations about the Barr for President movement. Read On…
Topics: Other | 1 Comment »
Is the Left Playing Opossum?
By Dino Crocetti | July 10, 2008
If you believe what you’ve been seeing or reading lately, the left has a bone to pick with Barack Obama as he attempts to distance himself from his hard left stances in the primary season and voting record in the Senate and tries to make a giant leap to the center for the general election. He has irritated left wing blogs, Move On and Jesse Jackson alike and they are making their voices heard whether they mean to or not. Or don’t they? Continue reading
Topics: Presidential Race | No Comments »
Obama is embarassed for you
By Bill | July 9, 2008
If you don’t speak Spanish, you better learn it. If you are going to travel, Barack Hussein Obama is embarassed you aren’t bilingual.
This is the kind of out of touch, far left, put downs of every day Americans that Obama really represents.
Topics: Presidential Race | No Comments »