Would have, could have, should have… Despite missed opportunities and false starts, NASA has done amazing things worth more than every penny they have been allocated. As an agency literally on the frontier of knowledge and exploration, I would expect nothing different than some inefficiencies.

But now it is time for improvement. Changing corporate culture is hard, but not impossible. We do well to remember that the demographics of NASA are different from the gang of twenty somethings that blazed their trail to the moon in the 60s. All organizations mature and naturally tend to stagnate. I think it has something to do with human nature in groups.

NASA is at a wonderful crossroads where young people are filling the ranks (based on retirement of the workforce and of shuttle and station development work.) NASA also is in an interesting position where it has done all of the easier, less exciting alternatives to building a moon base or going to Mars. It is a perfect storm forcing NASA to sink or swim.

I believe that it will swim. Obama, Gen Y, and a more thrill seeking American public push NASA to do something spectacular and worth it’s billions.

In my mind, the best-case scenario is to see NASA launch some big Ares V mama-jama payloads to the moon like a power plant or ISRU plant and then pay companies like SpaceX to send NASA astronauts there. In the meantime, private companies and other nations would send anyone else to the Moon that they wanted to and use NASA’s infrastructure. I think that this is somewhere along the lines of what NASA intends to do anyway, sans SpaceX.

If we get the next administration to invest in such a venture we will have to let them see that it will help keep our lead in space , develop green technologies, and stimulate the economy.

Michael Moore suggested on CNN that we put the American auto worker to work on helping the country develop infrastructure. I believe the work that NASA does is infrastructure.

We can get out of this economic slump and NASA has a historically pivotal role. If we choose.

if those were the only alternatives, then i’d tend to agree with you. but i actually think if nasa was more effective at partnering with, enabling, and acting as a champion for, *independent* space activities, we would have humans on the moon (not to mention elsewhere) faster and more efficiently, from both a cost and an engineering perspective.

the Obama administration is the first one i’ve been alive for that i could imagine not only appreciating that, but being bold enough to do something about it.

that said, i dont know that space is high enough on anyone’s priority list right now, as anything more than a showpiece for america’s STEM activities, that it will bubble up to a place where such bold steps could be thoroughly analyzed, motivated and taken.

how could we cause such bubbling to happen??