Want Me to Start an International Space Agency?

In my previous newsletter, I griped about the fact that we Canadians, and in fact the rest of the world aren’t able to participate in naming NASA’s next set of Mars rovers. Okay, I can understand why; it’s a US mission, so only Americans should get to name the little critters. Fine, I’m cool with that. Then I joked that someone should start an International Space Agency.

Mixed in with the “welcome back” email I received on Friday, I received a clever idea from one reader that suggested I start an International Space Agency. Accept people’s donations through Paypal or something, and then portion it out to various deserving research institutions, space associations, etc. – anyone who’s actually working on space exploration.

Obviously, the first instinct was to reject the idea instantly. Where are the engineers? The astronauts? The paperwork? Isn’t what makes a space agency? But then I thought, why not? Isn’t that just what NASA does, but on a vastly larger level?

Of course there are a few details (finding worthy recipients, doing the accounting, etc), but it actually sounds like quite a simple thing to put together initially. So let me know what you think? Are you looking for a way to contribute to the exploration of space? Send me your feedback? maybe I’ll figure out a way to organize all of us armchair space patrons.

Fraser Cain, Publisher
fraser@universetoday.com