Washington View: Shuttle-less U.S. losing ground in space race

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When President Obama permanently grounded Americas space shuttles a couple of years ago, he made a huge mistake. He gave Russia carte blanche over the International Space Station, and we now pay $70 million each for our astronauts to hitch a ride.

With Vladimir Putin flexing his muscles in the Ukraine and thumbing his nose at the United States and rest of the world, what happens if he gives our astronauts the boot? Wed be up the creek without a paddle. Our shuttles were hauled off to museums.

Not only did Obama tube the shuttles, he canceled the Constellation program, the successor to Americas historic space shuttle program. Although the complex program was plagued by delays and cost overruns, taxpayers lost the $11 billion theyd invested when the president shut it down. Obama says he also opposes returning to the moon another huge blunder. Instead, he plans to send astronauts to asteroids and, eventually, to Mars.

To reach Mars from Earth, Obamas budget funds the design and production of massive new heavy lift rockets. But because gravity on the moon is one-sixth that of the Earth, it would be far easier to launch Mars missions from the moon. China thinks so, as well.

In abandoning the lunar program, the president missed the point. It is not about been there, done that, it is about having a place from which to launch deep space missions like his mission to Mars test new technologies and develop limitless supplies of clean energy.

Space physicist David Criswell believes the moon could supply clean renewable energy for our entire planet. He and others envision a series of lunar power facilities to capture massive amounts of solar energy and beam it back to Earth. The moon receives more than 13,000 terawatts of energy and harnessing one percent of that energy could satisfy our planetary needs.

Apollo 17 astronaut Dr. Harrison Jack Schmitt, a geologist and one of the last two people to walk on the moon, believes Helium 3 found on the moon is the key to the second generation of fusion reactors. A light, non-radioactive isotope, Helium 3 is rare on Earth, but plentiful on the moon and scientists believe it could produce vast amounts of electricity.

Potential lunar colonization got a healthy boost a year ago when ice was discovered by NASA scientists at the moons south pole. That means there could be drinking water, oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for rocket fuel on the moon itself.

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Washington View: Shuttle-less U.S. losing ground in space race