Grand Slam 3/Grand Slam 3.iso/047/dbate019.arj/APOLLO11.TXT

Text File | 1995-08-04 | 7KB | 140 lines

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                             July 19, 1995
                          by William H. Walker
                          ([e-mail])

            (A reprint, original submitted to both the op-ed
            section of the LPTX news service and to Libernet
           Digest on the Internet, July 19, 1995.  Reprinted
           by permission of the Author.  All rights reserved
                            by the Author.)

           On July 20, 1969, an American stepped out of a crude
        spacecraft onto the surface of the Moon. It has now
        been twenty-six years since that "one small step". Far
        from heralding the era of space exploration and
        colonization promised by presidents Kennedy, Johnson,
        and Nixon, the moon voyages now seem to have been a
        dead end. Not only have we not progressed to building
        moonbases, space stations or missions to Mars, America
        no longer has any spacecraft capable of voyaging to the
        Moon. What went wrong with the dream? Surprisingly, the
        answer to this space age riddle can be found in
        history.

           This is not the first time that a large nation has
        turned inward and abandoned its age of exploration.
        Though it is little known except among historians,
        Europeans were not the first to go in search of "New
        Worlds". The Chinese Emperor Yongle had launched his
        fleets toward Africa and India long before.

           In 1405, the eunuch admiral Zheng He set forth with
        a fleet of 317 ships crewed by 27,870 men. Their two-
        year mission:  to seek out new life forms and new
        civilizations (and make them submit to the Emperor).
        Between 1405 and 1431, the exploration fleets made
        seven major voyages, traveling to India, Ceylon, the
        Persian Gulf, and East Africa. They brought back
        curiosities such as zebras, ostriches, and giraffes
        (and the king of Ceylon, who did not appreciate their
        visit). They also distributed lavish foreign aid on
        those princes who swore fealty to the Chinese Emperor.

           Then, they stopped. The entire program was shut
        down. The mighty shipyards no longer produced long-
        range vessels. Ownership of oceangoing ships was
        forbidden to Chinese citizens. Foreign trade of any
        kind was discouraged, whether by land or sea. In 1479,
        the War Ministry destroyed the official records of the
        journeys. Chinese exploration might never have
        happened, for all its effect on future generations.

             European exploration got off to a later start, on
        a shoestring compared to the Imperial budgets of the
        Chinese. The Europeans did not succeed because of
        superior ship technology, either. Zheng He's
        exploration vessels had compasses, stern post rudders,
        and multiple watertight compartments. Scholars estimate
        the largest of the vessels were over 400 feet long, and
        displaced up to 3,000 tons. (The Nina, Pinta and Santa
        Maria of 1492 are thought to have been smaller than 100
        tons; they could have served as lifeboats for Zheng
        He).

             Yet the European exploration was no dead end. It
        quickly spread both the good and the bad of European
        culture around the globe. Exotic products poured back
        into European ports. Scientific knowledge exploded.
        European colonists left to pursue their dreams of
        freedom (or their peculiar forms of repression, in some
        cases) on new continents months' voyages away from
        their kings.

             The difference between European and Chinese
        exploration was simple. Chinese explorations were huge
        government projects whose goal was prestige (and
        perhaps shipbuilding contracts for the politically
        favored?). They were not followed by traders or
        settlers, because the Emperors valued control over
        their subjects' lives above all else. The Emperors did
        not believe in individual rights or private property
        apart from that granted by the all-powerful state. The
        Chinese Age of Exploration was founded squarely on the
        ideal of government control of everything.

             European explorations were often funded by
        governments. But they were followed rapidly by traders
        and colonists. Private property and trade built the
        economic strength of the English colonies. Even those
        who came to the New World to create planned societies,
        like the Pilgrims, ended up adopting free enterprise
        instead.

            European governments tried to limit the
        independence of their colonies, and failed. Eventually
        some of these colonies broke away from the whole idea
        of kings, and became the United States. But have we
        really advanced so far from Emperor Yongle, and his
        quest for government prestige?

            If we look at the American space program without
        the mist of sentiment, we see that it looks more like
        the huge, bureaucratic Chinese program than the
        decentralized Europeans. Zheng He would feel right at
        home in NASA. NASA is huge budgets, giant government
        programs aimed toward prestige goals, and no lowly
        entrepreneurs. And most critical of all, there is no
        provision for private property in space.

            NASA has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on
        exploration and research. Many possible space
        industries have been identified, ranging from asteroid
        mining to vaccine production. But no company can invest
        where there are no property rights. If the dream of
        space colonization is ever to be realized, investors
        and homesteaders must be able to own Moon real estate,
        asteroids, orbit slots, and space stations.

            NASA will never be able to create the enormous and
        complicated infrastructure needed for space
        development. If we have learned anything from the
        collapse of the Soviet Union, it is that there is no
        substitute for the market system. Until spaceships can
        count on being able to refuel at Joe's Deuterium &
        Lube, space travel will remain a waste dump for
        government's excess cash (or should I say excess
        debt?).

            Newt Gingrich has said that he wants to see America
        return to the Moon to stay, with a permanent base. He
        doesn't need to boost NASA's budget. All he has to do
        is allow Americans to extend the American system of
        private property rights to the new frontier.  And then
        future generations can read Neil Armstrong's heroism as
        a preface to a new age, instead of a pathetic footnote
        to some other nation's dreams made real.

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