On 9 January 2013 11:30, Philip Musyoki
<pmusyoki@gmail.com> wrote:
@Wash,
I am see the space industry taking more of a private sector approach
toward space as opposed to state sponsored exploration. Agencies like
NASA have had their budgets cut, and the US Government seems to favor
private companies such as SpaceX to carry on research and development
of space industry.
Now you can see where this is headed. If the approach works, space
will become an commodity, just the PC and the internet, which stared
as Government/Education Institution funded projects eventually became.
It will become a matter of whether now we can afford it. If Kenya need
to be in space, and we have a some spare money, we may just contract
these companies to take us there. Think of Richard Branson's Virgin
Galactic. Hell, if you have a few million dollars of change, you will
be able to go to the moon.
So the era of nations competing to go to the moon will be over. So to
answer your original question, Kenya will probably never get a chance
to go to the moon as a project of national pride. The novelty will
have worn off by the time we have eradicated hunger, tribalism,
political strife, urban decay, slums, health sector collapse,
marginalized peoples and other social ills to get time to think about
the space.