As you probably know if you’ve listened to, watched, or read any kind of respectable news source in the last day or so, yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the start of the Cold War Space Race. Sputnik was launched in to orbit and began a race between the US and the former USSR to conquer the real final frontier. Within 12 years of the USSR launching a little basket ball sized ball of metal in to orbit for first time ever, the US landed a manned mission on the moon. The innovation in orbital missions and beyond during that time was truly amazing, but it seems to have slowed down since then. At the pace things were moving, one would have expected manned space stations on the moon by now, not a barely manned orbiting station that is falling apart faster than it is being built. The general consensus as to why space exploration has slowed down is that the fall of the USSR got rid of the competition that kept it going.

Here’s my proposal: We need a new space race. This time, however, the competition is coming from more than just one country. China is developing space technology, Russia is still in space, several other countries have put men in to space, and more importantly in today’s capitalist world, companies are starting to develop that are interested in the prospect of space tourism and mining. Why, then, is the US acting as if there is no longer any motivation to compete in this newfound space race? We should be leading the pack, or, even better, cooperating even more than we might now with other countries and companies to take space exploration to the next level. With the way technology advanced in the 20th century and has continued to do so thus far in the 21st century, I see no reason that I shouldn’t be able to see a moon based and a manned mission to mars – or beyond – by the end of my life. To that end, my future grandchildren should be colonizing the moon and mars.

I see no reason that anything I just said is unreasonable, we just need someone in power to give NASA the one thing they really need to begin truly innovating again: Money. Sadly, however, our current government prefers to endlessly pump cash into a quagmire, while lining its own pockets and those of its friends with taxpayer’s dollars.