Private Rocket Firm Under Pressure to Fill Space Shuttle Void

Before NASA there were arguments in the NACA about manned and unmanned flights. President Eisenhower formed NASA in 1958 after Russia had taken the lead in space exploration and created the non existent "missile gap".

The race into space was part of the cold war with Russia. Who had the biggest rockets to put men in space or deliver the biggest hydrogen bombs any where on the planet. It was a matter of national pride as well as national security.

In 1961 President Kennedy gave the speech:" We will land a man on the moon and return him in this decade". That speech helped open the floodgates of money to do it. (the cost $24 billion in 1960 dollars) The goal was to do it before Kennedy left office in January, 1969. Had it not been for the Apollo 1 fire on the pad in all likely hood it would have happened and been another jewel in Kennedy's crown of accomplishments as president.

With all his political strength Vice President Lyndon Johnson was the man who made it happen, not Kennedy's speech. Launches from the Cape in Florida, but the control center at The Johnson Space Center near Huston was the price Johnson demanded and got as his reward. Expensive government duplication when a larger control center at the Cape would have done the job, but that is the real world of politics.

A man in orbit, a man on the moon that is what got the headlines. On page 27 perhaps you could find a short column about unmanned projects.

When President Johnson saw that landing a man on the moon before he left office was not possible, he went for the best that could be done in his time frame.

Apollo 8 was planned to circle the moon with the LEM attached. The LEM was not ready so it was ordered that on Christmas Eve, 1968 Apollo 8 would circle the moon without the LEM. Had Apollo 8 experienced the same problems that later befell Apollo 13, in all likely hood the astronauts would have perished. It didn't happen and Johnson got his jewel just before he left office January, 1969. (the politics of space)

July , 1969 a man stepped onto the moon and a billion people watched it live.

The successes and failures of manned flight got the attention of the people who paid for them, the taxpayers. Unmanned flights did not.

The experience gained with the rockets and technology of the manned flights was a huge stepping stone for the more cost efficient unmanned flights.

I do recall setting my alarm clock to listen as two men explored a tiny part of the moon during one of the later Apollo missions. I don't think I have ever done that for an unmanned mission. It is human nature I assume.

The discussions about which is best were going on in the 1950's just as they are today. I am glad we did both.

I for one want to see the exploration of space continue no matter what form it takes.

Going into space makes no sense unless it is profitable. That profitability is what drove adventurers into the western hemisphere and it was stolen gold brought back by the Spanish that drove the economies of Europe for a couple of centuries.

Mining asteroids, particularly those rich in platinum group metals (PGM - PeGgyMays) has the potential to instigate a new industrial revolution.

The mining of asteroids, smelting, refining and even manufacturing of product from them in the zero gravity vacuum of space, would refine robotics and provide high technology with improved metals and perhaps generate electronics performance like we’ve never seen before. The problem of environmental impact will be a ‘no never mind’, and who knows? Nano technology in manufacturing may really take off when utilized in space. The main thrust of my thesis here is that much of the processes could be robotic, not requiring a human presence except periodically.

The Third Industrial Revolution, by Stine, was published in 1979 (copies are available on ebay right now). He pointed the way over thirty years ago and with the improved electronics and robotics of today it is not just science fiction. Space exploration and colonization will pay for itself.

One thing is for sure: this will require a President with vision, not some community organizer who hasn’t a clue on how wealth is actually created.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Asteroid_mining

http://www.permanent.com/a-mining.htm

http://www.howstuffworks.com/asteroid-mining.htm

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