Krauthammer on the new Obama space policy

Charles Krauthammer has written a column on the new Obama space policy. He views setting Mars as an ultimate goal as a bait and switch ruse.

"Of course, the whole Mars project as substitute for the moon is simply a ruse. It's like the classic bait-and-switch for high-tech military spending: Kill the doable in the name of some distant sophisticated alternative, which either never gets developed or is simply killed later in the name of yet another, even more sophisticated alternative of the further future."

I would agree with that if Obama had even actually officially set Mars as a goal. There has been some verbiage to that effect, but I don't think it has been officially set as a goal. To the extent that it is a semi-official goal, I think there is a lot of concern about whether there will be follow-through to achieve the goal.

I disagree with Krauthammer that commercial firms can't take over launching astronauts to Low Earth Orbit and the ISS although, admittedly, it does remain to be proven.

Rand Simberg disagrees with a lot of Krauthammer's conclusions here.