Ron Paul's 'Zany' Ideas on Abolishing NASA, Renegotiating Space Treaties

COMMENTARY | Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, might be expected to support NASA, since the Johnson Space Flight Center is in that state, However, a couple of position papers from his 1988 run for president on the libertarian ticket would prove that supposition wrong.

The first position paper, in the domestic policy section, called for the abolishing of NASA as a government agency. Any parts of it that had any application to national security would be transferred to the military. The rest would be sold off to the private sector and the money used to pay down the national debt.

Abolishing NASA, which some on the hard edge of libertarian ideology favor, is not very politically practical. It should be noted, though, that none other than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich thought that this would have been a good idea at the end of the Apollo program in his 1996 book, "To Renew America."

The second position paper, in the foreign policy section, dealt with three treaties that have to do with space and is the more interesting one therefore.

Paul expressed his opposition to the so-called "Moon Treaty" that designated the resources of outer space as the "common heritage of mankind." The treaty was negotiated and signed by the United States during the Carter administration, but was never ratified by the United States Senate due to pressure of pro-space groups. The United States is therefore not considered a party to the treaty.

Paul also called for the revision of the Outer Space Treaty to handle private property rights on celestial bodies such as the moon. He proposed opening a land office and selling parcels of land-say on the moon-with ownership subject to a homestead within 15 years.

This proposal is somewhat similar to one this writer published a year ago.

Third, Paul would like to revise the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to allow for the testing and deployment of spacecraft propelled by the explosion of nuclear bombs. The concept, developed in the late 1950s, is called "Orion," cancelled after the test ban treaty was enacted and both the military and NASA refused to fund its development. There are also concerns about fall out and EMP created by nuclear bomb propelled spacecraft.

While Mitt Romney might find the idea of renegotiating long standing treaties "zany," Paul actually has some good ideas in this area. Conditions have changed since the Outer Space Treaty and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty were negotiated, signed, and ratified. Revisiting them would be in order.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the LA Times, and The Weekly Standard.

Source: Ron Paul Space Policy Positions, Ron Paul Presidential Campaign (1988)

To Renew America, Newt Gingrich, Harper Collins, 1996

Privatize government, lease the moon to trim the deficit, Mark R. Whittington, Yahoo News, Nov 22, 2010