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Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit has a column at TechCentralStation titled Cracking the Shell.

He lists a number of reasons why we should colonize Mars, post-haste. The following sums up what should be done about the troubles in space exploration in much better fashion than Reed’s simple “pull the plug” approach:

The most important goal of such a policy has to be to lower costs. Doing things in space is expensive – horribly so. (In fact, in many ways it’s more expensive than it was in the 1960s). This is no surprise: it’s the tendency of government programs to drive up costs over time, and human spaceflight has so far been an exclusively government run program.

That’s why promoting the commercialization of outer space is so important. Market forces lower costs; government bureaucracies drive them up. Among the cost-lowering programs that are likely to make the biggest difference is space tourism, which is beginning to look like a viable industry in the short term. (Just ask Dennis Tito.) We should be promoting it any way we can, but especially through regulatory relief and liability protections.

Government programs should be aimed at research and development that will produce breakthroughs in lowering costs: cheaper, more reliable engines, new technologies like laser launch, etc. Once this technology is produced, it should be released to the private sector as quickly as possible.

It’s a good rebuttal (if unintentionally so) to Reed’s ridiculous Washington Times op-ed.