Re:Don't Mourn the Space Shuttle. Privatize Interstellar Exp...
by mindcrime on Thursday April 19, 2012 @11:36AM
(#3863488)
Does anyone think SpaceX would be possible without decades of taxpayer funded research?
Yes.
Would SpaceX be happening now if there had never been a Space Shuttle? Quite simply we have no way of knowing and we never will, because we can't roll back history, change variables and make new experiments. But there's no particular reason whatsoever to think that the technology required by SpaceX would not (have been|be) developed just because it wasn't funded by taxpayers. If you're going to play with alternative scenarios, it's equally possible that privatizing space travel research decades ago would have led to more progress, not less.
But, for better or worse, we have what we have here today. I don't think any Libertarians are playing "triumphalism" here, so much as just pointing out that now is clearly a good time to start transitioning certain elements of space travel to the private sector. It's fun to argue about what might or might not have happened under other scenarios, but it's not a very productive discussion.
Yes.
Would SpaceX be happening now if there had never been a Space Shuttle? Quite simply we have no way of knowing and we never will, because we can't roll back history, change variables and make new experiments. But there's no particular reason whatsoever to think that the technology required by SpaceX would not (have been|be) developed just because it wasn't funded by taxpayers. If you're going to play with alternative scenarios, it's equally possible that privatizing space travel research decades ago would have led to more progress, not less.
But, for better or worse, we have what we have here today. I don't think any Libertarians are playing "triumphalism" here, so much as just pointing out that now is clearly a good time to start transitioning certain elements of space travel to the private sector. It's fun to argue about what might or might not have happened under other scenarios, but it's not a very productive discussion.