Don't be blinded by the moon

The silvery lure of the moon and the golden wages of thousands of research jobs are strong motivators to support NASA's space-exploration program and its significant annual investment in the Cape Canaveral area.

Rocketing humans back to the moon by 2020, a goal announced by former President Bush more than five years ago, would boost Florida's Space Coast economy. Yet seen from a national perspective, it is hard to justify the price. The moon beckons, but it is not an end in itself.

President Barack Obama plans to junk the moon project and focus instead on orbital missions, advanced propulsion research, robotics and partnerships with private space-flight companies. It's a more conservative approach with the potential to prove more productive.

The challenge for Florida is that many space jobs will be up for grabs. Gov. Charlie Crist is smart to begin positioning the state to win a big share.

Crist must prepare for a much different approach to space, even though the fight over NASA's future is just beginning. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, saying he will fight the change, warns that Obama's plan would put thousands of people out of work. Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama says that unless Congress stops Obama's plan, manned space flight will begin a "death march."

But the moon program, with an ultimate goal of sending astronauts to Mars, has never been adequately funded. By some estimates, it couldn't reach the moon before 2030, and once there, would not be ready to go farther.

With existing technology, distant space travel for humans will never be affordable or safe. For 30 years space shuttles have been venturing to the near edge of space and then hurtling back to Earth. The shuttle program is coming to an end, and rightly so. It is time for something better, or nothing at all.

"Imagine trips to Mars that take weeks instead of nearly a year," says NASA administrator Charlie Bolden. "That is what the president's plan for NASA will enable, once we develop the new capabilities to make it a reality."

That's like a football coach promising to deliver a national championship just as soon as his staff thinks up some unstoppable plays.

Humans have bumped hard against the reality of a hostile, infinite wilderness. Throwing vast amounts of tax money at it is no guarantee this frontier will ever open in a profitable way.

But tapping deeper into the profit motive, as Obama proposes, could inspire imaginations, like those of Orville and Wilbur Wright. When the brothers risked their lives in the early 1900s figuring out how to steer an airplane, they did it so they could sell their invention to the Army.

Nelson is right that space research is not a waste. It has produced useful spinoffs, including communication and weather satellites, GPS and medical advances, including Lasik surgery.

But those successes don't make Obama wrong to try to unleash the inventiveness of U.S. profit-motivated entrepreneurs to build faster and cheaper ships. Jobs will be created, but they will be different jobs, possibly in different places.

Crist has gone to work exploring ways to keep Florida a leader in the aerospace industry. He proposes $20 million to help space businesses locate here and expand. Chancellor Frank T. Brogan is urging the university system to form partnerships with space companies and to coordinate research.

That sort of leadership and welcoming attitude, along with flight-friendly sunshine, will help Florida remain America's primary launch pad to other worlds.