Space Exploration Should Be Funded By The Private Sector

The author of this article, Steve Bonta, is strongly convinced that space exploration should not be done through the government, but rather through private enterprise. Citing historical examples such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, he proclaims that scientific progress has been created efficiently though the private sector in the past, and continue to do so in the future. He claims that "private enterprise might achieve comparable advances in space exploration with greater efficiency and at no cost to the taxpaying public." He goes further to write off such extreme scientific achievements such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station as "colossal waste[s] of public funds." What he fails to mention is the key benefit of such ambitious and admittedly expensive programs. Such projects presented some of the toughest scientific problems in history. Finding solutions required ingenious engineering that either created stepping stones for new advanced technology for the private sector, or vastly improved upon existing technology. These breakthroughs have fueled our technology development since the creation of NASA and cannot be overlooked. In addition to this, Bonta fails to provide evidence that the private sector would be more efficient than NASA except for the idea that competition would streamline Space Exploration. My question is what competition? What incentive does the private industry have of effectively exploring the cosmos for the sake of discovering benefits to the human race still unknown and developing technology to share with other companies for the good of the global economy? None. In the hands of the private sector, I am confident that Space Exploration would need to become profitable and would thus become exploited by whatever company supports it. It is an expensive field and would need to yield great rewards, and great rewards usually come to those who are only looking to benefit themselves, not humanity. Space Exploration is in a way a humanitarian effort too expensive and requiring far too much human dedication to be supported by private funds if operated for the purpose of improving life for all people. Saying that it can be carried in such a way is ignoring the facts of America's economy.

Bonta, Steve. "Space Exploration Should Be Funded by the Private Sector." At Issue: Space Exploration. Ed. Daniel A. Leone. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 7 Feb. 2010 < http://find.galegroup.com >