Writing at Quartz, Tim Fernholz notes that early space tourists “won’t benefit from the tight regulation we’ve come to expect in everything from air transport to private automobiles.” Although the Federal Aviation Administration enjoys approval authority over launches, the Commercial Space Act limits government interference in post-launch space flight.

That’s a good thing, for three reasons.

The first reason is that the United States is neither the only country in the world nor the only country capable of hosting launch facilities. If Blue Origin, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and other companies can’t do the things they aim to do in America, they’ll do those things elsewhere, in countries where governments are happy to mind their own business in exchange for an economic boost and more tax revenues.

The second reason is that government regulation tends toward a “one size fits all” approach that stifles innovation, including innovation in safety.  Once a regulatory requirement has been established, the incentive for business is to concentrate on meeting the requirement rather than on developing even better systems that make it irrelevant and hope they can get the rule changed.

The third and final reason is that for space tourists, risk is part of the package. Space travel is dangerous. It will remain dangerous for the foreseeable future. Those considering paying big money to be flung into space know the risks and are okay with them.

To date, 18 US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have been killed in space flight while a number of astronauts and workers have been killed in non-flight accidents.

As we revisit the moon, then turn our attention to more distant destinations, more will die.  Mars is 46.8 million miles away at its closest point to Earth, with no tow trucks nearby should anything break down, and a not especially hospitable environment at the other end.

Space is the final frontier and frontier life is dangerous. Just ask those who explored Earth’s seas or settled the American west.  Despite the dangers, they did those things. Just as, if one of the private space companies asks for volunteers to man an experimental crew capsule tomorrow, the next day they’ll find a line of eager applicants several miles long outside their door vying for the privilege of getting strapped to a 30-story tube full of explosive fuel and hurled into the heavens. I might be in that line myself.

These companies don’t want their passengers and crew members dead. That would be bad for business. They’re going to do their best to minimize the risks — and they’re going to have no trouble at all finding willing volunteers to face those risks. Government can’t eliminate the risks and shouldn’t get in the way trying to.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION  HISTORY

• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 03/20/17
• “Risk, reward, regulation and space tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pahrump Valley, Nevada Times, 03/22/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 03/22/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Queens, New York Ledger [web and print editions], 03/28/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Forest Hills/Rego Park, New York Times [web and print editions], 03/28/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Brooklyn, New York Downtown Star [web and print editions] 03/28/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Long Island/Astoria New York Journal [web and print editions] 03/28/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Queens, New York Leader/Observer [web and print editions] 03/28/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Queens, New York Examiner [web and print editions] 03/28/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Glendale, New York Register [web and print editions] 03/28/17
• “Risk, Reward, Regulation and Space Tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Greenpoint, New York Star [web and print editions] 03/28/17
• “Risk, reward, regulation & space tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, McAllen, Texas Monitor, 04/09/17
• “Considering risk, reward, regulation and space tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Fayette, West Virginia Tribune, 04/10/17
• “Considering the risk, reward, regulation and space tourism,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Montgomery, West Virginia Herald, 04/14/17

As the 2014 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was litigated in the court of public opinion, Ferguson’s police department released video which appeared to show Brown robbing a local store a few minutes before his fatal encounter with Wilson.

A new documentary, Stranger Fruit, includes additional, mostly previously unnoticed, footage which seems to call that interpretation (and the attendant perception of Brown’s character) into question. Filmmaker Jason Pollock believes it shows that what happened was not a robbery, but an exchange of marijuana for cigarillos.

I’m no more sure what to believe about the footage and its import than I am of precisely what happened that day between Brown and Wilson. But I am sure that the last person entitled to have his opinion on the matter taken seriously is St. Louis County, Missouri prosecutor Robert McCulloch.

McCulloch calls Pollock’s theory “just stupid” and “just nonsense.” But it was McCulloch whose epic, and apparently intentional, mishandling of the formal investigation made speculative inquiries like Pollock’s inevitable. Stranger Fruit exists because Robert McCulloch wanted neither to do his job nor to be seen as not doing it.

As a prosecutor, McCulloch had discretion to do one of three things.

He could charge Wilson with a crime, presenting evidence to sustain the charge in a public preliminary hearing.

Or he could take the case to a grand jury where the evidence would be considered in secret.

Finally, he could decide not to pursue the matter further if he didn’t believe the evidence was there to convict Wilson.

At all times when taking any of these three courses, McCulloch’s job remained the same: To pursue charges if he believed he could prove the case, to not pursue charges if he didn’t.

Instead, McCulloch set up shop as Wilson’s defense attorney behind the closed doors of the grand jury proceedings. For all intents and purposes he quit his job as prosecutor and concentrated solely on NOT doing what he was supposedly there to do, which was to get an indictment.

McCulloch’s machinations created the impression that “the fix was in” — because it was. His priority wasn’t to do his job, or to reach the truth, or to serve justice. It was to exonerate Darren Wilson because, and only because, Wilson was a police officer.

McCulloch has a long and legendary record of bending over backward to ensure that no police officer is ever held responsible for his or her actions, even when those actions are clearly criminal.

Granted, his personal history plays a role. When he was 12, his father, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty. But that’s no excuse. He’s supposedly a prosecutor, but instead works tirelessly to exonerate accused cops, including the killers of two unarmed men at a Berkeley, Missouri restaurant in 2000.

Wilson may or may not be one of those rare bad apples we always hear about from defenders of police as such. McCulloch undoubtedly is. Stranger Fruit, meet rotten fruit.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION  HISTORY

• “Stranger Fruit meets Rotten Fruit: Robert McCulloch and the Michael Brown shooting,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Columbia, South Carolina Panorama [web and print editions], 03/16/17
• “Stranger Fruit Meets Rotten Fruit: Robert McCulloch and the Michael Brown Shooting,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Key West: The Newspaper [Florida], 03/17/17
• “Stranger Fruit Meets Rotten Fruit: Robert McCulloch and the Michael Brown Shooting,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 03/17/17
• “Stranger fruit meets rotten fruit,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pickens, South Carolina Sentinel, 03/18/17
• “Stranger fruit meets rotten fruit: Robert McCulloch and the Michael Brown shooting,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Montgomery, West Virginia Herald, 03/22/17