Nationalism is all we've got to push forward space exploration; While there were initially subtexts involving spy satellites and nuclear weapons, the tech has been there for forty years, and forty years ago we stopped making progress and settled into a holding pattern involving the Shuttle and a modest space station in some sort of 'spirit of cooperation' that is earmark- rather than goal-oriented.
I can only hope China's national inferiority complex is intense enough to propel human beings beyond low earth orbit once more, and shame us out of our hyperpower exceptionalism. Yes, shame - Russia can send someone to the ISS and the US cannot - and without the US feeling ashamed of that, there is no Dragon, no Dream Chaser, no Orion.
Without a political space race, there's no resources for this sort of thing except for the passing billionaire.
"Nationalism is all we've got to push forward space exploration"
What about the Google X-Prize for the moon lander? Several teams are competing. There are certainly other ways to push technologies forward. X-Prizes help. Finding other ways to tap into the $15 trillion US economy would help too.
Comments
Put politics aside?
Nationalism is all we've got to push forward space exploration; While there were initially subtexts involving spy satellites and nuclear weapons, the tech has been there for forty years, and forty years ago we stopped making progress and settled into a holding pattern involving the Shuttle and a modest space station in some sort of 'spirit of cooperation' that is earmark- rather than goal-oriented.
I can only hope China's national inferiority complex is intense enough to propel human beings beyond low earth orbit once more, and shame us out of our hyperpower exceptionalism. Yes, shame - Russia can send someone to the ISS and the US cannot - and without the US feeling ashamed of that, there is no Dragon, no Dream Chaser, no Orion.
Without a political space race, there's no resources for this sort of thing except for the passing billionaire.
"Nationalism is all we've got to push forward space exploration"
What about the Google X-Prize for the moon lander? Several teams are competing. There are certainly other ways to push technologies forward. X-Prizes help. Finding other ways to tap into the $15 trillion US economy would help too.
All true but a "political space race" can have a bad ending as well.