NASA Fighting its Ultimate Demise

Space elevator by NASA

The Wall Street Journal reports that NASA is courting science fiction authors to write pro-NASA science fiction novels. In a current collaborative novel, the enemies of humanity are cast as "tightfisted bureaucrats who have slashed NASA's budget." Really? Could it be any more obvious?

I don't fault NASA trying to prop up its budget, but this illustrates how they are increasingly becoming an agency without a reason to exist. The military has its own space program. Private sector space companies are quickly filling in launch capabilities for other public needs, such as weather and navigational satellites. Experimental aircraft design? The military and private sectors have that covered pretty well too. And space exploration? Even this former NASA mainstay is getting nibbled at by private sector activity, Red Bull and Google being prime examples.

My novel, Beyond Earth, envisions a day when NASA is no more. Could we continue to advance in space without some big, federally funded space agency? Definitely. Think of how expensive in the past an Arctic or Antarctic expedition would have been. Did these require a government-funded agency? Oftentimes, these were privately funded groups, that today we would call non-profits. There were many different motivations: a desire to discover something new, a quest for fame, patriotism, personal competition. Some may have eventually hoped to profit financially, but it certainly wasn't the only reason they invested in such expeditions. If you're wondering what forms a private space expedition might take, you might start with reading my novel.