Greg Dobbs is a journalist who lived this past winter in Russia shooting a documentary for HDNet Television about the Russia space agency. He notes that one of the main differences between their space program and ours is the emphasis our program places on cooperating with private enterprise and utilizing that ingenuity. After helping NASA, our private companies turn around and sell their inventions to enrich the lives of the American consumer (and help the companies make a profit). It doesn't work that way in Russia. While the American companies were selling us fire retardant materials, home insulation materials, polarized sunglasses, acoustic guitars, GPS systems, microchips, Dust Buster and Tang, the Russians don't even bother to shovel their snow, even though their space program is just as sophisticated as ours, if not more so.
Dobbs writes in the May 24 Denver Post that he believes the difference is that "Americans are idealists who challenge adversity and aspire to overcome it." The Russians just believe "adversity is an unavoidable inheritance. From political tyrants to economic hardship to harsh weather, they have lived with adversity. In other words they have low expectations." I hope that we do not become that way, too.
1 comment:
I have a friend who works for NASA and she often comments on how practical their program is and how dependent we are on electronics. And she works with most of the private companies. I sometimes think we'd be better off now if we just put the program in their hands. NASA is really just a glorified FDA for electronics.
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