After the Columbia space shuttle disaster, some people were asking, should the government continue to fund space travel? My answer is yes and no.
First in order to demonstrate my view on this issue, I must briefly explain my view on individual rights and the purpose of government. As derived from an objective theory of metaphysics and epistemology, every individual has one fundamental right from which all others are its corollaries or consequences: the right to one’s own life, which means, the freedom to take whatever actions one deems necessary for the benefit of one’s own life, as long as you do not violate that right for others to do so as well. A government is an institution created in order to protect a group of individuals from other individuals who seek to violate their fundamental right to life. Any other institutions, such as social security, healthcare, welfare, etc., require that the government initiate force against certain citizens (i.e. the rich) in order to rund these institutions. Such initiation of force is clearly in violation of the purpose of a government. Thus, the only proper institutions for a government to have are a military (to protect its citizens from foreign enemies), a police force (to protect citizens from criminals), and an objective law court system (to protect contractual agreements between two or more citizens).
This being said, should the government fund a space program? I believe, that based on the proper function of government, that the government should have a space program for military applications only. This includes the development of a “Star Wars” missle defense system, a potential defense against asteroids/aliens (if they do exist), a space-based weapons system, etc. The other side of a space program, space exploration, should not be a government institution but rather a private endeavor.
