<Clearly, we either

1: have to tax people, most of whom don't give a rip about space, or
2: wait until private enterprise can make a profit doing it.

Now, the problem with the first method is that political conservatives regard taxation as anathema...



The problem is not just political conservatives. Many liberals who support high taxes often feel that the space program is not the best place to spend the money by any means, and have their own ideas where the money should go. Add to this those moderate conservatives who aren't against taxes in principle yet may also think the space program is a waste of time, and there are a lot of those too.

I have seen few conservative think-tank studies on cutting government waste that don't shove the entire Space Station program right off the edge of the table. On the other end of the spectrum, the Green Party platform has just one thing to say about space: "Place a moratorium on space shuttle and other chlorine-fueled missile launches until alternative safe fuel sources are developed." Thrilling.

Space enthusiasts looking for government money to solve their problems are fighting a serious uphill battle.

...the problem with the second is that it's just not profitable to go past fairly near Earth.



Politically, as far as far space goes, free enterprise conservatives are hoisted on their own petards - don't tax, get the government out, let profits rule. Space exploration isn't a priority, and won't be. No matter how the real, real die-hard conservatives try to spin it, the hard facts of the current administrations budget says exactly that. Read it and weep, as they say.

So, the American public elect a politically liberal US government which can see tax cuts, wait for a profit to be made by granting ownership of Mars, for instance, to the first company which can get there, or whine about not doing much.



The trick is going to be finding something near Earth which is profitable enough to develop the low-cost launch infrastructure required to do the rest of the jobs cheaply. I used to think it was launching commsats, but now I think space tourism may be the wave of the future. The second trick is going to be allowing private property rights in space, which the socialists and others who want a piece of the Little Red Hen's bread are going to object to.