Posted 1/27/2010 06:45:00 PM by Douglas

Not a great day in the history of space exploration, but it's not done yet. We still get to hear from Barry tonight. The hitter:

When the White House releases its budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was to return humans to the moon by 2020. The Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to return to the moon. There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases.

The "do we need NASA" argument will go on, I'm sure, for ever, but the short answer is people may not know what we do, nor do they care. But they don't care that less than one penny of their tax dollar is given to NASA, and occasionally, we launch something. I don't think the mouth-breathing public is ready to give up on the symbol of American technological superiority so easily. If we're going to spend $2.5 billion to build a train to Disney land, I think people will agree that NASA is worth the price.

But there are alternatives to getting government funding, so here's my idea: Sell off surplus land at KSC and JSC and build tract homes there. Get risky mortgages from people with questionable financial histories. Then, when they default on their mortgages, the NASA Savings and Loan can claim "they're too big to fail" and use that sweet, $800 Billion hand out to fund the mission back to the moon and on to Mars! It can't fail, it's a sure fire way to get government funding? I'll only require a 4% fee for originating the plan. I think that's fair.