Shortly after posting "Where are the Europeans?" I discovered the Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR200807... [1]) referenced in the title above, and I find it an interesting complement to my previous article for several reasons.
It provides one answer to "Where are the Europeans?" by reviewing the space exploration plans of the European Space Agency and the European Union. The article also briefly mentions the government space programs of India, China, Russia, and others. Sadly, there is no reference to entrepreneurial space activity, although "The 17-nation European Space Agency (ESA) and China are also cooperating on commercial ventures, including a rival to the U.S. space-based Global Positioning System." It can be argued that this is not a true commercial venture since government support is required, and one might ask to see the business case for supporting an expensive effort that will compete against the free service provided by the US GPS constellation.
So, yes, it is getting crowded out there, but if competitions like the Google Lunar X PRIZE are successful the small crowd of spacefaring governments will be dwarfed by the number and diversity of spacefaring corporations and wealthy individuals. I am surprised that the Washington Post article omitted the growing NewSpace industry and any reference to this prize, which emphasizes the need for and value of this competition and the increasing media visibility it will generate.
The article also got me thinking about American competitiveness in a global economy as the US deals with economic problems and growing challenges to the Federal discretionary spending that provides NASA's budget, and Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the BRIC nations) are experiencing improvements in both their economies and space programs. While all these nations face economic challenges, I wonder if during the next few years the BRIC nations' space agencies will behave like the NASA of the 1960's, and NASA (led by its master, the US Congress) will behave more like feeble and scared organizations that can't see beyond current problems and invest in creating the future. In other words, will the adolescents whip the adults, eventually leading to a future journalist asking "Where are the Americans?" If left to government, perhaps. If left to the entrepreneur, I doubt it.
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