The Sky’s the Limit If You Can Afford It
Keith TuckerMy report from my trip is the Tennessee river is a marvel of engineering and a real treasure to this area. That trip is not for everyone. 600 miles on a jet ski is no small thing. The people I met along the way made for a wonderful experience.
Someone told me once that given enough time and money, the Corps of Engineers could make the Mississippi river go to New York. The way they control the water on all the dams they control makes this country much safer and more livable for all of us.
There's been a lot of talk about diverting Mississippi river water to the west. It is technically possible, and during the spring wet season we wouldn't miss the water. I don't know if it's worth $15 to $20 billion and 30 years to pull it off. But then I don't live in the water-starved west.
Another massive engineering project underway is the Artemis spacecraft. It is getting ready to take us back to the moon. Another engineering marvel.
One question I got answered this week was why did we scrap the Saturn Five rocket that took us to the moon the last time. The short answer is none of the technology that made it is still around. It’s just like when one of the Iowa class battleships was damaged a few years back and it could not be fixed. The technology that made it was no longer around.
There was such a rush to get to the moon before 1970, and not everything was documented about how the Saturn Five was actually constructed. Some of the detailed drawings are missing. So it was decided to start from scratch.
This rocket is actually bigger than the Saturn Five. There is no doubt that we had some luck on our side to pull off the moon landings. The multiple space shuttle disasters proved just how tough spaceflight can be.
I know the Artemis program is late and over budget. What government program is not? Well, the new B21 Raider stealth bomber is under on schedule and budget.
At the rate we are adding to the deficit something is going to have to give sooner than later, I hope.
