This weekend we had two astronauts on a space walk to repair one of two cooling pumps in the American sector of the
International Space Station (ISS). This repair is not going well so far, but everyone is hopeful that the American crew will not need to abandon their section of the station and take refuge in the Russian section. Last I heard, each shuttle mission to the ISS cost
approximately $450 million. And the ISS itself cost more than $100 billion. So we are talking a fair amount of money to keep this thing afloat while we argue about whether or not we have enough funds to leave the Earth's orbit. Does this make a lot of sense? Yes, we are learning that cooling systems (and toilets) are critical to human survival and it is easier to fix them locally than when the spaceship is on its way to Mars. But do we need to learn this multiple times at half a billion dollars per shot? We have a Congress arguing about every penny here on the surface of the planet. Some one else will do the math soon enough. We need to start setting a bold vision that includes more than plumbing and cooling. And maybe this is a chance to get the private sector involved, such as Home Depot. They have some nifty plumbing/cooling tools and fixtures.
