STAFF EDIT: Economy tough on Spirit

It’s a dark day for space NASA announced last week it will deem the Mars Spirit rover, companion to Opportunity, a stationary research station after attempts to free it from deep sand proved unsuccessful. And in his budget proposal for fiscal year 2011, President Barack Obama announced he would be cutting funding for space exploration, particularly that allowing a potential return to the Moon. But desperate times call for desperate measures. We’re in a recession, and unfortunately $18 billon over five years is the maximum amount of money Obama is willing to spend on space programs through NASA. And we’re OK with that.

Obama’s proposed NASA budget will cut jobs, and it certainly won’t put a man back on the moon in the near future, but it does allow for private contractors to step in and encourage space exploration-related business. And while it is almost impossible to argue that a space program is not important, even in a time of economic downturn, it is important to consider the national debt and those terrestrial programs that should take precedence.

Obama is making the right decision in decreasing the amount of funding that goes toward government-funded moon and space exploration programs, but the president is smart to increase NASA investments for general technological advances that will continue to put the U.S. on the top of the charts.

This is not the time for massive space expansion, but that is not to say that these next few years should set a precedent for the future. We will always be able to find a place for space exploration and the sciences and technology in the United States budget, and with any hope, in the future we will find ways to continue to expand it. For now, though, different research projects and maybe space exploration in the private sector will have to do as our nation turns its focus to beginning charity at home, instead of among the stars.

As long as we remember that there eventually will be some sort of economic bounce-back, and with that an expansion of the space program once more, the country shouldn’t digress too much in its technological, scientific and outer space endeavors. Space exploration and NASA-funded programs have given the U.S. more than Tempur-Pedic beds, Tang and robots stuck on Mars &- it has given this country a wealth of knowledge, prestige and patriotism that shouldn’t be undermined or overlooked.

Keep in mind: we are undercutting scientific funding not because we’d like to, but because we have to in these trying times. But as long as we maintain the expectation for expansion in the future, and consider it not a luxury but a necessity, the United States should be back on the moon and beyond in no time. Until then, rest easy, Spirit. Continue to try and dig your way out of the Martian sand with your little robot hands. With any luck, 2016 will bring us better fortune, financially, and perhaps even allow for your safe return home to Earth.