More than 30 years have passed since I developed and taught the course Space Industrialization and National Priorities at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1977.  The enabling technologies to achieve the space industrialization vision of Gerard K. O’Neil’s High Frontier have been developed and refined.  Yet the results have fallen far short of that vision notwithstanding its technological feasibility.

The primary weakness that I see with US space policy is that it is far too timid.  The manned space budget at 300 million is roughly in parity with the budget for fusion research.

The sustained expansion of human space activities requires the synergy of many independently developed systems and their enabling intellectual diversity. The prevailing approach of government funded, defense technology derived, space development programs alone is not capable of achieving sustained growth. National leadership and priorities vary on time scales much shorter than typical space system development cycles. Intellectual continuity is compromised by long development timelines, and the associated drifting of program focus. Entrepreneurial efforts have demonstrated shortened development timeframes,