We need more like the James Webb Space Telescope

When I was young I used to get excited about every mission that went to space. After all, I was born before man walked on the moon. But with time that luster wore off, and NASA became more of a thing we just did because it’s what we were supposed to do. Instead of Apollo 11, we had yet another space shuttle mission to test how sugar crystals react to burning in space. Important science, I’m sure, but not exactly exciting.

With each year we Americans settled for the mediocre yet again, another shuttle mission, another comm satellite, and upgraded weather satellite launch. Still important, yet ho-hum. Occasionally we got a reprieve from routine space, and we got something like the Mars rover Opportunity. Or Curiosity. Or Galileo, Cassini, or New Horizons. So the adventure at NASA wasn’t completely dead, but it was just limping along.

And it still is.

The sad thing about NASA is that it’s a government agency, so everything costs 10x what it should, there are way too many employees, way too many restrictions, and innovation is rarely rewarded. It’s a leviathan when what we need is a lean, mean, space exploring machine.

We do get a reprieve. Private enterprise is taking up the yoke of exploring space, and Space X has promised to put a lander on Mars by 2018. Good luck, Mr. Musk.

So even the future at NASA isn’t entirely dim.

We have a planned mission to Europa to study the moon of Jupiter most likely to have life. (Maybe. Might launch in the 2020s.)

We have the Mars InSight mission to drill into the surface of Mars and see what’s below. (Launches in 2018.)

In 2020 we’re supposed to launch a more advanced Martian rover.

We have Juno, arriving at Jupiter in July of this year to study Jupiter in detail.

And, of course, we have James Webb scheduled to launch in October of 2018.

Details of the James Webb

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But we need more. We, humanity, are an exploring species. When we sit on our butts doing nothing, we stagnate. Then we start bickering and worrying about who uses what bathroom. Silliness. What’s important is the advancement of our species, our movement into what is our destiny… space. We need to stand up and insist that we buy fewer tanks and more ion drives. We need to spend less on sports and more on fusion research. We need to step back from the utter silliness of religious intolerance and grab the Moon, Mars, Ganymede, Ceres. Because it’s ours. And instead of taking baby steps, we need to leap into the darkness with a boldness worthy of being human.

NASA is outdated. We need to update it and make it that lean machine, or we need to eliminate it and cede space to private enterprise. There are quadrillions of dollars worth of resources out there. There are answers to every question about our origins. Space will pay for us to come there, if we let it. Helium 3 is nearly priceless, yet the surface of the Moon is laced with it. A single asteroid moved into lunar orbit could provide more mining potential than we’ve had in the history of mankind. Space has everything we need. Hydrocarbons in asteroids, comets, and on Titan. Volatile gases frozen in comets and in forever dark craters. Water enough to fill the Earth’s oceans again and again. Gold. Silver. Titanium. Uranium. It’s all there. We just have to decide what our destiny is.

Are we cowardly and fearful apes sitting in the trees while the Savannah waits for us with fire and food? Or are we the people I thought we were as a kid when each space mission was a matter of awe and inspiration?

We have to decide. At some point we will no longer be able to sustain our people on Earth. Our resources are depleting. Our biosphere is in danger. Our oceans are dirty. Our soil is eroding. Our society is decaying in stagnancy.

Space is what will change it all. Space is what will make our species immortal, safe, and beyond the grasp of extinction.

Will we go? Or die quietly at home?

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