Recently, NASA announced it would be using a pixelated illustration of a naked man and woman waving hello in order to attract the attention of aliens.
I’m not sure if using nude illustrations is a proper way to communicate with extraterrestrial life forms. I also wonder what NASA has to say about alleged alien abductions.
At any rate, such a bizarre way of contacting aliens is just another reason to privatize NASA.
Here are some other reasons for doing so.
According to Jonathan Leaf’s book The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties, the United States was not losing the space race (contrary to what the Kennedy Administration had claimed). In fact, there wasn’t much of a race going on at all, despite the Soviet launch of Sputnik and Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man to journey into space. Nor was there any race to the moon, since the Soviets were not interested in sending anyone there. Such fears of America losing the space race were 1) political goals, i.e. the 1960 presidential candidates, and 2) the aftermath of the Second Red Scare which emerged after World War II, which in turn led to the Eisenhower Administration being pressured into creating NASA (despite the scientists on the advisory committee pointing out that such an agency would result in many complications, not to mention being too costly).
Leaf also discusses that it is more costly for NASA to rely on manned flights than unmanned flights to achieve any of its goals. This is due to manned flights having to return to Earth, thus the need for larger-sized-rockets equipped with oxygen, provisions, and other essentials in order to ensure that the astronauts have a safe journey.
Leaf also mentions the dark side of America’s space project- the use of Nazi scientists such as Werhner von Braun (who developed the V-2 rockets used during World War II and relied on slave labor from concentration camps to carry out his projects- many of whom were worked to death). Another Nazi scientist working for NASA was Arthur Rudolph, former superintendent of the Dora concentration camp. These individuals (fearing the wrath of the Soviets) fled to the West, and thus took advantage of the Cold War.
Finally, Leaf points out that America’s space program did not lead to new inventions (e.g. Teflon and Velcro- both of which had been around for decades). Perhaps the only significant invention that NASA came up with was the bar code scanner, used to keep an inventory of the many parts needed to assemble space rockets.
In conclusion, while space exploration might be beneficial in the field of science, it is best done in the private sector. Thus, NASA should be privatized. Whether or not such a change takes place is yet to be seen, especially since unfriendly nations (e.g. China) seem to be interested in the conquest of space.
