In response to a Jan. 21 column:
While Mike Walters has a valid point, he is a few years ahead of his time. It is true that commercializing space is the best way to conquer it; however, the technology does not exist to do so now. The X Prize’s purpose is to do just that. It is a $10 million reward for any person or group who launches a vehicle into orbit, returns it and its crew safely, and repeats the process two weeks later to prove that it is a reusable vehicle. However, no one has been able to claim it yet. Using Russian-based technology, China took ten years just to put a man into orbit.
So to claim that the government has a monopoly on space is incorrect. NASA’s budget is $15 billion a year, which Bush wants to increase by 10 percent. Now hypothetically, if one were to allocate the majority of the budget to other NASA programs such as astronomy and climatology, the Moon and Mars program would roughly have $5 billion.
What person, group of people, or company has that kind of money to fund the development of base on the moon? Given the time for the correct technology to develop, lunar vacations and even homes will become a reality.