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Going Where No Tank Has Gone Before

By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane

    Tuesday, March 13, 2001; Page A19

    Bound by gravity no longer, the Cato Institute is taking its libertarian philosophy to new heights. Let the think tank race to space begin.

    This Thursday, the tank is holding a conference on "Space: The Free-Market Frontier," keynoted by former House member, informal Bush science adviser and lobbyist Bob Walker.

    "Space commercialization -- and even private citizens in space -- was basically a stillborn revolution. It never took off because of the government's involvement," said Cato's Edward Hudgins, who is organizing the event. "At a time when the new administration is rethinking space policy, we think it's time to . . . consider how we can unleash the dynamics of the market in the space sector."

    Conference participant Rick Tumlinson of the Space Frontier Foundation wants to establish a "near frontier" and a "far frontier." In this scenario, the space to and including the moon would be the purview of commercial interests, while NASA would be banished to the rest of the solar system and beyond (still a pretty roomy playing field).

    James Dunstan, vice president of LunaCorp, a company that hopes to put a commercial rover on the moon, will focus on the tricky business of developing a property rights regime in space. Specifically, how could you legally go about owning a position in orbit? Or a part of the moon?

    Then there are the truly futuristic ideas, such as "collecting energy in space and transmitting it back to Earth in the form of microwave or laser beams." Sound too far out? The concept has been around for years, and conference co-sponsor ProSpace was just shopping it on the Hill in recent weeks, Hudgins said.

    "This is 2001," said Hudgins. "This is the year that, not only in science fiction but in the popular mind, we couldn't have imagined that we wouldn't have space stations and moon bases. But we don't. What happened?"

    NO WebTV FOR YOU: The Heritage Foundation's online "Heritage Tax Calculator," which allows the cyber-savvy to figure out their share of the projected spoils from President Bush's proposed tax cut plan, is a huge hit. The Internet site attracted more than 145,000 users during its first 12 days, said Jim Weidman, Heritage public relations director.

    One problem. The calculator was so popular that demand initially overwhelmed the tank's computer network and threatened to keep some would-be calculators from accessing the site, reported Jon Garthwaite, director of online communications.

    To ease the burden, Heritage staffers got this missive in their e-mailboxes last week: "It will help us reach a greater number of individuals with the tax calculator if each of us tries to limit our Internet use only to important and business needs, especially between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.," Garthwaite wrote. "Watching FoxNews and other live TV and video events on the Web is the greatest use of our Internet connection and I'd ask you to limit this as much as possible." (So that's what Heritage staffers do when they aren't thinking.)

    But good news for taxpayers and TV fans at Heritage. The technical bugs were squashed, and users had no trouble Monday accessing the site at www.heritage.org/taxcalculator.

    SICK SATELLITES: Speaking of space races, the Center for Strategic and International Studies is also at midstream in a five-month project assessing the health of the U.S. satellite industry. The general prognosis: not so good.

    "The difference between what was available to foreign countries and what was available to us 10 years ago was a big one, now it's not much of a difference at all," said James Lewis, the tank's new director of technology policy, and a veteran of satellite policy at the departments of Commerce and State. "The way to adjust is for us to be stronger in space and have a stronger satellite industry, as opposed to keeping other people from getting access to this stuff, because that's not going to work anymore."

    One topic sure to be revisited: restrictions Congress placed on U.S. commercial communications satellites in 1998. The CSIS commission plans to release a final report suggesting changes later this spring.

    FOLLOWING THE MONEY: The Brookings Institution has just debuted its online campaign finance Web site, www.brookings.edu/gs/cf/cf_hp.htm. The site pro- vides one-stop shopping for policymakers, reporters and academics who want the latest news and views on money in politics. Also available are backgrounders on such issues as soft money, election law and the Internet and issues advocacy advertising.

    Our favorite feature: "A Guide to the Current Congressional Campaign Finance Debate," a page that provides links to summaries and texts of campaign reform legislation pending before Congress. There you'll find the complete 38-page working draft of "S.27 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2001" (a k a the McCain-Feingold bill) as well as detailed analyses by supporters and opponents of the legislation.

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