The United States has a proper place in space

The United States has a proper place in space

Minot (N.D.) Daily News, on space exploration: Should the United States continue space exploration with a plan to return to the moon by 2020 and to explore Mars in the future?

From a scientific standpoint, the answer is yes. From an economic standpoint, the answer could be much different.

The plan to return to the moon is projected to cost at least $108 billion, and perhaps as much as $140 billion. And who knows how much a mission to Mars would cost. There are no more millions when discussing space exploration missions everything, it seems, costs billions of dollars.

In today’s economic conditions, are those costs something the United States can justify?

Following the plan

Unless President Barack Obama changes course, NASA will continue to operate under a plan set forth by then-President George Bush in 2004 that calls for returning to the moon by 2020. But a special independent panel commissioned by Obama has already concluded that the mission cannot succeed without additional funding as much as $30 billion.

The question for citizens, then, comes down to this:

Can the United States afford to continue an aggressive space exploration plan?

Can the United States afford not to continue an aggressive space exploration plan?