Joe Pelton has an editorial over at space.com about space policy. It contains the usual justifications (we need to save ourselves from the asteroids, etc.), but while I agree that there are questions that have to be asked, I’m underwhelmed by his:

Why explore space and why send humans into space?

Why does NASA spend the money it does?

Why does NASA use the resources it has the way it does?

What is NASA?s role in terms of education, health care, energy and job creation?

Why is there not more international cooperation in space activities?

Should the U.S. government, at all levels, not realize it needs to do a better job telling us why space and space research, exploration and applications are key?

Why the focus on NASA? This needs to be framed much broader–what is the role of the government, and of the private sector?

And what’s the big deal about international cooperation? Why is this apparently a desirable goal, in and of itself? There’s no good reason for it to be. We should cooperate if it makes sense, not just for cooperation’s sake.