President Bush’s new space policy will not only improve scientific research but also create economic opportunities for the communication, energy, tourism and transportation industries, Jim uncy, president of Polispace, a space policy consulting firm, said during a panel discussion Tuesday at Georgetown University Law Center.

Former Astronaut Col. Rick Searfoss, Edward L. Hudgins from the policy think-tank the Objectivist Center, and physicist and space critic Robert Park joined Muncy for the panel discussion titled “Mission to Mars or Mission Impossible?”

Muncy called the criticism that the new space policy was not budgeted enough a myth. He said by turning off the space shuttle in 2010 and renting out the transportation services for the International Space Station, NASA will be able to transfer some of its resources for further exploration on the Moon and Mars.

Muncy also said the limited budget will force NASA to “try out different, commercial ideas” and reduce its costs. He said government and the private sector should work together to achieve the goals of the new space policy.

Hudgins said people think space exploration “is so expensive so only government can do it.”Maybe the reason why it’s so expensive is that government is doing it,” he added.

Searfoss said the private sector and NASA should team up to form “a synergy.” He said the incentive of the private sector to invest in space exploration is low because “the pay-off is spotty, way way out there.”

According to Searfoss, the private sector can be encouraged to invest in space research by prizes and contingency contracts, using the X-Prize as an example.

The X-Prize promises to award $10 million to the first team that “privately builds a spaceship that carries three people to an altitude of 100 km (62.5 miles), brings them safely to earth and repeats the launch with the same ship within two weeks,” the official Web site reads. The deadline for the competition is Jan. 1, 2005.

“The next Americans that will go up to space will not be in the shuttle,” he said. “They will be the winning X-Prize competitors.” He said he found the Scaled Composites, LLC team exciting.

Hudgins said a tax-policy can also promote private investment. He said a company can be tax-exempt for all its revenues for 25 years if it builds a moon-base.

Hudgins also said NASA should “define down its mission to basic research and technology.” He said NASA is “all over the board,” and should “shut down, privatize or turn over to other government agencies the parts unrelated to science and research.” He said the space shuttle should be turned over to United Space Alliance and the International Space Station should be turned over to Russia and other partners.

Searfoss said NASA lacked the right “navigation and guidance.” He said “navigation” defines where the agency stands, and he said the agency has been damaged by the administration for the past 10 years. He called the agency “a political beast.”

According to Searfoss, “guidance” defines where the agency wants to go, and he said NASA would not be “up to the task even given sufficient resources.” He said he found it positive that Bush is the first president to say something about space “in a long time.”

Park said the United States does not have to send people to space, because the Mars Rover is just “the extension of the operator.”

He said the robots would be able to perform scientific research just as well as any human being, and human beings would “contaminate” the Mars environment, leading to false findings in the search for life.

Park also said the conditions in space are too hostile for human beings. “If we restrict ourselves to human beings, we’ve gone as far as we can go, we’re shut,” he said.

The space exploration and Bush’s new space policy is not only about scientific research, Muncy added. He said the policy gives NASA “a mission to accomplish and an agenda to pursue.”

Space exploration will transform the “extended commerce of the U.S,” and he said he does not only mean “business” by the term “commerce,” but “the full range of things humans are engaged in.”

Muncy also said space exploration is “nothing less than building an empire of liberty, and that’s what [he is] committed to make this agenda about.”

Georgetown Law Center’s Space Law Society sponsored the panel.