A costly frontier
Posted: September 8, 2009 at 5:51 a.m.
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. — Should the United States continue space exploration with a plan to return to the moon by 2020 and to explore Mars in the future?
From a scientific standpoint, the answer is yes. From an economic standpoint, the answer could be much different.
The plan to return to the moon is projected to cost at least $108 billion, and perhaps as much as $140 billion. And who knows how much a mission to Mars would cost. There are no more millions when discussing space exploration missions; everything, it seems, costs billions of dollars.
In today's economic conditions, are those costs something the United States can justify?
Unless President Barack Obama changes course, NASA will continue to operate under a plan set forth by then-President George Bush in 2004 that calls for returning to the moon by 2020. But a special independent panel commissioned by Obama has already concluded that the mission cannot succeed without additional funding - as much as $30 billion.
The question, then, comes down to this:
Can the United States afford to continue an aggressive space exploration plan?
Can the United States afford not to continue an aggressive space exploration plan?
- Minot (N.D.) Daily News
Opinion, Pages 4 on 09/08/2009
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