A Dream Wrecked on the Moon

Elected with the mandate to find new horizons for the American dream, Barack Obama has given up the project to return to the moon and create permanent bases there from which to launch human exploration into the extremes of the solar system. With a budget burdened with $1.35 trillion in debt, a public deficit equal to 9.2% of GDP and the prospect of ravishing the federal coffers which will be opened in the upcoming months, the American president is obliged to give up following the footsteps of John F. Kennedy in pushing America to this frontier and sacrifice the Constellation program, created by his predecessor George W. Bush. This means that the next human being to walk on the moon will probably be Chinese, considering the sizable investments Beijing is making to reach this goal.

The step backwards is a bitter decision for Obama, who in his electoral campaign said the he wanted new generations of Americans to “freely pursue their dreams,” and who Ted Kennedy compared to his brother John for the audacity of his dreams.

He had repeatedly stated his belief that human exploration of the solar system would promote scientific research. In May, he exposed his personal passion for space by calling the astronauts on board the shuttle Atlantis from the Oval Office, talking to them like old friends.

It must have been even more difficult for Obama to validate the idea that the relationship between NASA and private enterprise in the space program should be reversed. Up to now, the U.S. space agency has been the absolute leader in projects concerning vehicles, research and astronauts; now the helm seems destined to pass into the hands of a dozen groups such as SpaceX, founded by PayPal creator Elon Musk, Orbital Sciences, inaugurated in 1982, and Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson —the rebellious pioneer of cosmic tourism. It will be private companies that will now make missiles, space ships and other space programs that NASA will then make their own, with the hope of saving as much as possible for tax payers. The image of a Democratic president, a tenacious supporter of neo-Keynesian theory regarding the role of government in the economy, who decides to downsize the role of the state in space research to the advantage of private enterprise – much like a Republican leader who followed Milton Friedman – is destined to mark Obama like the difficulties of his Administration after not even 13 months on the job. Even worse, those who will pay the price are thousands of NASA employees, traditional Democratic voters, beginning with those in Cape Canaveral, Florida, part of a state barely won from the Republicans during the presidential campaign of 2008.

Sacrificing political interests and Kennedy-like tendencies, Obama admits the limits facing America in 2010: to face the challenge from aggressive emerging economies, above all the super power must correct its own finances. Until that happens, it will have to put many dreams on the back burner. For those scientists who thought an astronaut from NASA would be on his or her way to Mars soon or predicted exploration of the moon for new fuels, this is a rude awakening. The consequences of abandoning the moon mission are still to be seen. In a nation where politicians or businessmen do not have to save resources to be successful, trying to transform every obstacle into opportunity, it is feasible that other players will make “Constellation” their own ambitious goal. Perhaps they will try to show the federal government that it is not necessary to use tax payers’ money to navigate to Saturn.