So recently the government zapped $670 million from NASA's human exploration budget and dubbed it a temporary measure, however, as was just pointed out by Blake Ortner in the Mars Society email, this is really a guise to make the government look good later. It takes away a huge amount now, which sets a secret precedent for future budgets. The government then raises it meagerly in the future and take credit for an increased budget, that is actually still several hundred million dollars lower than it was.
When I first heard news of the slash, I saw that the European Space Agency and NASA were considering teaming up for future manned missions, including a prospective mission to mars. I think this is a good call for now. Our nationalism needs to go out the window on this one. Nationalistic space competition is sluggish and does nothing for us outside of high tension situations such as the cold war. So why not team up?
Furthermore, why not go beyond the union of ESA and NASA and branch out to other agencies to accomplish tasks. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) is already working on one of my favorite tasks: setting up solar power collection in space. They hope to have a system up by 2030.
When I think of how much not only Japan, but the world could benefit from something like that, it seems astounding to me that we haven't pooled our resources yet. Not pooled them in the International Space Station way... that way where you stay over there and I stay over here, and we screw our bits together later, but in a more productive, interdependent way.
The exploration of space has always been clear about one thing: "Feed me money."
In a global economic crisis, it's going to go down on the priority list for many countries, but a total halt of progress would be tragic, and I feel it would deprive humanity of many great things.
This frontier demands international cooperation at some point lest we one day fight in space as much as we fight here. What a legendary thing this would be to embark on together.
JAXA, NASA, ESA, RFSA, CNSA, etc... Maybe you can't afford to do much alone. That's why the public sees no point in furthering your goals. Wow them again and bring it together.
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