POLITICAL, board!

I say, why not.  Get those rich buggers to fund NASA.  Russia has been doing the smart thing and making a lot of money for their space program from wealthy Americans.  The whole thing will fall apart as soon as a Sputnik comes crashing through a spacecraft filled with billionaires, though.  

I say it could be good or bad, it would free up millions and the projects would no longer be going to the lowest bidder as far as some contracts. In the bad sense he will be taking away from a program that we no very little about and have much to learn. He was stating the other day he wanted to create jobs in the science field and wanted to put billions into education. He was talking directly about science being a huge part of this. Granted there is more to science than just space but it the essence there is so little we know about space. So I guess it could go either way.

Whats up Nico, sorry Im going to miss your next visit to Chicago. Fresh powder is calling my name out in Vail.

Let's face it -- government hardly does anything well outside of the function of killing people. Sometimes it even botches that job and kills the wrong ones.

I have no doubt that commercializing space exploration will go a long way toward moving forward the technology of space.

Imagine if company Z gets to own exclusive title to all the minerals on Asteroid X. Wow!  Then, they get to mine the crap out of that asteroid without any environmental laws, PETA activists or any of that jazz and ship back the results. Hey -- they may even locate automated factories in orbit where solar energy is abundant and nobody cares about heavy metal pollution. Wham bam Thank-you Ma'am -- now THERE is some serious motive to figure out how to have high quality and inexpensive transport.

Want to make people do something? Make it profitable.

Also, with commercialized space, we may find a place for the liberals where they can build their utopian paradise and leave the rest of us laggards behind. LOL

I'm certainly no rocket scientist, but I believe NASA uses some radioactive materials to power some of their equipment. If that equipment fails and blows up in the atmosphere, we could get showered with radiation, causing serious health consequences.