The foregoing quote is from John S. Lewis's book Mining the Sky (ISBN 0-201-32819-4) and it clearly underscores the current crisis facing NASA and space exploration today. The dilemma is that as far as space exploration goes, there must be more human investigation of our solar system before we can clearly describe promising investment opportunities for the private sector. Yes, astronomers have begun detecting promising potential in our asteroids and on some of our neighboring planets. Additionally, the robotic surveyors on Mars have also added tantalizing data, but none of it is currently sufficient to encourage the private sector to make the kind of "deep pocket" investments necessary to begin commercial operations in deep space. For now, NASA and its international partners must depend upon their governments to fund initial deep space exploration by humankind.
We cannot depend exclusively upon robotic tools to carry out planetary evaluations and assessments. We need direct examination by highly trained scientists and technicians to conclusively present those economic incentives that will ignite private sector involvement in humankind's expansion into deep space. Answering the question, "are there valuable assets in space" will start the process and to clearly answer that question we need to put astronaut scientists on some of our planets, and on some of our large, nearby asteroids.
No part of this vital effort is an overnight operation. It is going to take strong, concentrated planning, design and development of techniques and systems to begin deep space exploration. Time is of the essence, and to delay any part of that process is to dangerously stifle the critical NEXT STEP in the evolutionary and economic progress of humankind. Dare we delay? We could fall back into an unrecoverable state that makes us another planetary civilization that let progress and opportunity escape them. Whoa, how do I know this? I do not know it for sure, but I am certain that when we become deep space focused that my example will be discerned as we explore other planetary bodies throughout our galaxy and the universe. That is right, this is not mandatory should we desire to shrivel up and disappear, but should we desire to continue to move forward and upward then space exploration is the next and most promising frontier for humankind and its future.
CREDITS: The image at the top of this blog page is from Michael Pinto in is December 9, 2008 article in Science The article is entitled: Ten Reasons NASA Should Go To Mars Instead of the Moon
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