If all goes as intended, this evening the US Government will have a new highly advanced Rover sitting on the surface of the planet of Mars. The price tag of this mission is $2.5 (B)illion dollars. The people working on the mission are confident that if it ends in failure and crashes, that the US Congress will give them more money to try again.
Is there any basis on which to think that the Founding Fathers would have thought it was a legitimate responsibility of the Federal Government to fund space exploration?
In 1820, Thomas Jefferson began building the first Astronomical Observatory in the United States on the University of Virginia campus. He clearly believed that understanding the nature of the Universe was one of the most important things men could do.
But would he have had the Federal government doing it?
It could be argued, based on the Louisiana Purchase that Jefferson would have favored space exploration at taxpayer expense. Supposedly Jefferson was willing to set aside his ‘strict constructionist’ view of the Constitution in approving the Purchase because he felt that national security was the over-riding concern (specifically, to prevent another European power from grabbing this large mass of land to the west of the united States).
So, it is possible to conceive that Jefferson would have been just as inconsistent with regard to the space program. He may have agreed with Kennedy about going to the moon because we needed to “beat the Soviets”. Jefferson may have believed this was more important than any core beliefs about the nature of our government. Likewise, if a national security argument could be made for going to Mars (“beating the Chinese” perhaps?), then T.J. might have jumped on that bandwagon as well.
I can even see him channeling George W. Bush in making the announcement. What I mean is, picture the ‘deer in the headlights’ look that Bush had when he announced the $700 billion bank ‘bailout’ in 2008. Jefferson may have had the same look on his face when he announced “we must spend $5 trillion to beat those dang Chinese to Mars” or some such thing.
I suppose it is also possible that “strict constructionalists” pick and choose things from individuals who said or wrote things that support their point of view.
It’s probably worth pointing out that Jefferson was in France while the Constitution was written and passed. Since he would become the leader of the Anti-Federalists upon his return, it would be interesting to speculate how things may have been different if he had been in the room while the Madison, Hamilton and Jay were writing up the Federalist Papers
I think Jefferson saw a chance to double (plus) the size of the USA at a cost much less than that of the Revolutionary War and he took it. Having risked all he and our Country did for freedoms sake, I don’t see how he could have passed it up. I certainly wouldn”t have.
I don’t know about exploring Mars, but I think if he could have bought the Moon, he would have, and maybe Cuba…
For anyone who didn’t hear, it looks like the landing actually worked – an amazing accomplishment or a never before tried landing technique
Yes the landing technique was novel. Has anyone ever tallied the costs of all missions to the Red Planet? I read somewhere, NASA maybe, that out of 40 missions only 14 have been successful. That figure does not include Russian and Chinese failures, I think. Here is the Rueter’s link where I got some info –
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-usa-mars-jinx-idINBRE8711WR20120802
This subject tests my generally Libertarian leanings…there is something intangible about the space program – the sense of “can do” instead of the current prevailing “can’t do” attitude in the US. Allegedly, many day to day benefits have been derived for all of us.
Where would be be without Queen Isabella’s funding for Columbus? Would things have played out the same way if she hadn’t been a state sponsor of exploration of new and untested “space”?
President Kennedy felt American dominance in space was essential for the good of the human race. I think I feel the same way.
We need to put people on Mars and keep them there – for good. New colonists. Thus far, the only people with the money, drive and talent to do so are the Americans. But our clock is ticking…soon we’ll have none of the required money, drive or talent as we wither away on the vine. Maybe a little national unity behind something “big” would be what it takes to get us back on track?
I read recently in the news that we are paying Russia 63 MILLION dollars per seat every time they transport our astronauts to the International Space Station. I’m pretty sure Jefferson would have had a problem sending huge amounts of borrowed federal money to a foreign country and paying them to do for us what we used to be able to do for ourselves.
We used to get by without doing that as the Space Shuttle picking up the garbage counted as our contribution to the ISS. At one point, there was a rule against directly paying cash to Russia – but now that we aren’t making any deliveries, it’s time to pay up. Since we’ve had one successful docking using the private SpaceX rockets, we’ll be paying SpaceX instead eventually…. then China can buy up SpaceX and we can pay China 🙂
AS prboylan wrote, ” we are paying Russia 63 MILLION dollars per seat every time they transport our astronauts to the International Space Station.”
I would rewrite that to say, “we are paying Russia 63 MILLION nearly worthless FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES per seat every time they transport our astronauts to the International Space Station AND THE FED IS SCREWING ANYONE WHO ACCEPTS (nearly worthless) FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES (because they are almost as worthless as the paper they were printed on, but because the ink is expensive and, combined with the expensive paper, it’s not really worthless), but it still costs every nation more to trade their currency for a FRN than the face amount of their currency, but because the Fed supports a Democratic Society (and not a Republic) they can impose an acceptable WORLD RESERVE CURRENCY on all other nations because if they don’t accept it, the FED will direct the POLITICAL POWER ‘du jour’ to start bombing them into the Abyss, therefore, the FRN note rules all other nations (until further notice), and if you don’t believe that analysis just consider (with great thought and investigation) the Great Seal of the United States of America.
Thank you, Art for allowing me to vent a little.
Libya comes to mind as an example.