Since the glory days of the American space program are long past, the role of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration should pivot — from space exploration to space regulation. In particular, private companies — not NASA — should undertake the exploration of space and NASA should oversee these ventures, much as another federal agency, the FAA, oversees private aviation. Private space companies would go through rigorous tests and monitoring period and at a certain point be 'cleared ' for space travel with humans. This would be very successful because competition drives down prices, and the more companies there are, the cheaper it would be to go to space. Also, this oversight would allow NASA to discover more and do more, due to the
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In this, NASA would pioneer these trips, leading the way with the first many trips conducted by NASA, making discoveries that would help the private space companies. After NASA completes their testing, they would back off into an observing role once again, and private space companies would venture on. Town very suitable planets for these trips are Mars and Europa. Of corse, one of the large problems is money. The private space companies don 't have a lot of it. But unlike NASA, the private companies aren 't operating as many satellites, employing as many people, or operating as many facilities, so they could operate off donor money. But if somehow this money was to run out, the companies can bring NASA astronauts up, sell some of their patents, or sell their discoveries. Each space company could claim parts of each planet and attempt to build a habitat there. After their recent success of landing a rocket upright, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX said “This is a critical step towards establishing a city on Mars. Without [reusable rockets], it would be unaffordable – it dramatically improves my confidence that a city on Mars is possible, it’s what all this is about.” SpaceX is currently at the for front of private space travel and will likely be the pioneers of a Martian
In this, NASA would pioneer these trips, leading the way with the first many trips conducted by NASA, making discoveries that would help the private space companies. After NASA completes their testing, they would back off into an observing role once again, and private space companies would venture on. Town very suitable planets for these trips are Mars and Europa. Of corse, one of the large problems is money. The private space companies don 't have a lot of it. But unlike NASA, the private companies aren 't operating as many satellites, employing as many people, or operating as many facilities, so they could operate off donor money. But if somehow this money was to run out, the companies can bring NASA astronauts up, sell some of their patents, or sell their discoveries. Each space company could claim parts of each planet and attempt to build a habitat there. After their recent success of landing a rocket upright, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX said “This is a critical step towards establishing a city on Mars. Without [reusable rockets], it would be unaffordable – it dramatically improves my confidence that a city on Mars is possible, it’s what all this is about.” SpaceX is currently at the for front of private space travel and will likely be the pioneers of a Martian