The U. S. Must be first with the space elevator in order to maintain superiority in space Kent 07



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Economy


Space colonization helps the economy.

Engdahl 2008 (Sylvia Engdahl has written many non-fiction books on space exploration and development. November 5, 2008. http://www.sylviaengdahl.com/space/survival.htm) hss

There are also many sociological benefits of Space Colonization. We must remember that such an endeavor cannot be implemented by one any agency or single government. A world policy would be needed. In the United States, the combined efforts of NASA, DOE, DOI, DOT, DOC, and others would be focused in addition to our broad industrial base and the commercial world. It should be noted that the eventual space tourism market (tapping in to the world annual $3,400 billion market or the United States $120 billion per year “adventure travel” market) (Reichert, 1999) will not be based on the work of isolated government agencies but, rather, evolve from a synergistic combination of government, travel industry, hotel chains, civil engineering, and, yes, a modified version of industry as we know it today. The change in emphasis from our present single-objective missions to a broadband Space Colonization infrastructure will create employment here on Earth and in space for millions of people and will profoundly change our daily life on Earth. This venue, initiated by short suborbital followed by short orbital and then orbital hotel stays (Collins, 2000) has already begun with brief visits to the ISS. Once systems evolve that can reduce the cost of a “space ticket” to some $10,000 to $50,000 US, the market will grow.

Competitiveness



New Exploration programs are key to US competitiveness

Bacchus 11 (James Bacchus, Former Member of Congress & Sponsor of ISS and Kennedy Space Center, “American competitiveness needs space program”, http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/150091-american-competitiveness-needs-space-program, 3/16/2011) SV

The return of the space shuttle Discovery from its 39th and final mission was the beginning of the end of America’s space shuttle program. Was it also the beginning of the end of America’s human exploration of space? After three decades, the United States is retiring the shuttle fleet, which has kept busy in recent years building the $100 billion International Space Station, and taking crew and cargo back and forth to and from the station and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The final mission of the Discovery completed the U.S. portion of the space station, which is the combined effort of sixteen countries. Only two more missions remain for the shuttle fleet. The Endeavour is due to launch from Cape Canaveral on April 19, and the Atlantis on June 28. Discovery will now be prepared for display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The other two spacecraft are likewise destined for museums. It is unclear what -- if anything -- will replace the shuttle as a craft for continued human space flight. NASA has rockets that can send robotic probes to explore outer space. But the shuttle was America’s only way for humans to get there. The hope is that retiring the aging and expensive shuttles will free up federal money for developing a new launch system that can take us beyond the low earth orbit of the station -- just 220 miles up -- and into deep space. The heavy lift of a 21st-century spacecraft could take us back to the Moon, on to Mars, and into the beckoning beyond. The hope, too, is that private U.S. commercial space companies have advanced to the point where they can make smaller spacecraft capable of ferrying people as well as provisions to and from the station. Yet, for all the considerable promise of private commercial space exploration, it is not at all clear that commercial rockets will be able to be “man-rated” by NASA to taxi astronauts any time soon. And, sadly, one of the very few recent examples of bipartisanship in Washington has been the utter bipartisan failure thus far to figure out what to do next in human space flight, how to make it work, and how to pay for it at a price our chosen leaders think we can afford. While the Congress and the President try to find some way to work together to sort all this out, the only way we will have to get American astronauts to the space station, once the shuttles stop flying, will be on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The Russians are charging us the bargain basement price of $55 million for each seat. Meanwhile, back on earth, in my former Congressional district in Florida, which includes the Kennedy Space Center, thousands of workers are likely to be laid off later this year with the end of the shuttle program. Several decades ago, following the shutdown of the Apollo moon shot program, Florida’s “space coast” became, for a time, a ghost town. Some of those left jobless didn’t even bother to close the front doors of their abandoned homes when they left town. The fear at the Cape and along the coast is that it will happen again. Unemployment in Florida is already 12%. The Florida real estate market is one of the worst in the country. The loss of the shuttle program will ripple throughout the region. At a time of growing concern about American competitiveness, does it make sense to throw away the critical mass and the critical skills of thousands of space workers whose labors have secured and sustained America’s comparative advantage in what will surely be one of the key global industries of the coming century? But the approaching end of the shuttle program is about much more than the loss of much-needed jobs by hard-working people in my hometown. For far too long, far too many in both our political parties in the Congress and in successive presidential administrations alike have treated human space flight as just another job-producing public works project. That’s not how I saw it years ago when I was vice president of the space club at South Seminole Junior High School in Central Florida, and we were reaching for the moon. That’s not how anyone who has ever worked for America’s space program, or in any way been a part of that program, sees it. As we see it, the space shuttle Discovery was rightly named. If America stands for anything, it stands for discovery. Our historic task as Americans is to discover more. It is to use our freedom to extend as far as we can the ultimate reach of human experience, knowledge, and understanding. To fulfill this task, we must reach for the stars.
Committing to colonization solves US STEM decline.
Siegfried 2003 Space Colonization—Benefits for the World W. H. Siegfried The Boeing Company, Integrated Defense Systems http://www.aiaa.org/participate/uploads/acf628b.pdf
Problems within the education program in the United States have been analyzed many times. Rising illiteracy, 35% of all scientist and engineers being foreign born, and the 50% or higher foreign doctorate candidates who return to their country of origin after receiving degrees are examples. United States science and engineering schools are recognized throughout the world for their standards of excellence, but the number of United States students is declining based on a decreasing interest by the younger generation in the sciences and engineering. We must encourage young students to select engineering and science for studies as is happening in the rest of the world. Space Colonization can provide that stimulus. During the Apollo program, as NASA spending increased, so, too, did the number of doctorates received (Fig. 3). When NASA spending decreased following the Apollo program, so did the number of doctorates received a few years later (Collins, 2000). This time lag occurred because many students were well on their way to achieving their degrees. Once it was clear that funding and federal support had been reduced, the student population plummeted. We now face the prospect of many of the people trained in the sciences reaching retirement. Where are the replacements? A long-term worldwide commitment to Space Colonization could help. We must convince our present elementary school students to commit to science and engineering for these are the keys to our future.



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