No more space shuttle. That’s it. They’re shutting the shuttle down. I think the space station will still be up there, but transportation back and forth to it will be from Russia.
Stupidest theme song ever, but everybody wanted that car
I’m bummed, I think it’s a tragedy, a waste of a golden opportunity, an abdication of our generational obligation to do better than the generation before, to go further, to expand our horizons. But, of course, being a democracy, majority rules and most people look at space and say, eh, it’s big, it’s empty. When it times to cut something from the budget, space exploration is an easy target.
On the other hand, this could have a couple of unexpected positive side effects. In a sense, it leaves the field open for private interests to jump in. Not that it was an overcrowded field. Still, there are private individuals and corporations that are working on tourism in space, hotels in space and a space elevator, which would be way cool.
Also it may give other countries both a great incentive and an open field to exploit. So, space exploration is not necessarily dead. It’s just that American dominance is dead, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
A 3rd potential benefit is maybe NASA will trundle on, doing smaller projects, using unmanned ships, robots, computers, stuff like that which will save a fortune and get more raw research done, but it makes for lousy television. Even for a nerd like me, watching that thing that looks like a pool cleaner roll slowly across the reddish dust got tired pretty quick.
What I’m afraid of, though, is that with any manned missions off the table the general public will just forget about space entirely, and it will be easy enough for the government to just let it wilt on the vine. In the “discovery of America” analogy, our generation would be the Vikings. If we quit space now, it might be another 400 years before some braver, stronger, more enterprising group of people comes along.
If so, then shame on us.
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