J.J.: There is something bogus about comparing the shuttle program with the

Age of Exploration. Magellan & Co were opening up vast new continents, full

of treasure and available for immediate colonization by millions of

distressed aristocrats & hungry peasants. The shuttle program is about

studying the effects of weightlessness on yeast cells. There are no

continents full of treasure waiting to be populated in space, not until the

human race has evolved (or engineered itself) into something quite different

from what it currently is. Mars is the most hospitable of the planets: yet

it is less hospitable than Antarctica by a factor of thousands, and harder

to get to by a factor of millions. Possibly the human race, or something

descended from it, will populate Mars in the future. Certainly (in my

opinion) some modest govt-funded steps toward that very distant goal would

please the American people, and suit our romantic character. I favor such

steps, and have written to that effect on NRO. But the shuttle program is

nothing but outdoor relief for Boeing Corp., Lockheed-Martin, and a mighty

host of federal bureaucrats and engineers. It should be scrapped. We

should sit down calmly, and think carefully, from a zero base, about what we

want from manned space travel, and the best way to attain it. Commercial

interests in space should be left to take care of themselves: if there is

money to be made in space, govt’s principal duty is to get out of the way.

Military interests ought to be govt’s main concern–you yourself have

written brilliantly about this in NRODT. We must do more to augment and

protect our military assets in space. (And yes, there is some overlap with

the commercial there–e.g. GPS.) There is still plenty of high-value-added

pure science to be done (google on “pluto-kuiper”), and it is proper for

govt to help fund this; practically none of it, however, requires human

beings in space. There is a small diplomatic component to space

exploration. Then there is the romantic angle–inching towards the day when

our descendants will be true space-farers. We need to take in all these

considerations, decide what weight to give each one and what total public

resources we are willing to commit, and budget accordingly. The result

would look nothing like the present mess, in which the ludicrous and

unproductive shuttle program sucks in all available funds. I hope I need

not add that I intend no disrespect to our brave astronauts. For what it’s

worth: if I were offered a seat on the next shuttle flight, I would sign up

at once… but that’s personal. This is an issue for the nation.