MARINA DEL REY, CA--If all goes well, on October 23, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft will enter into orbit around Mars. But if the government is considering further missions to Mars, it should realize that it "has no right to spend its citizens' money on Mars exploration unless it is for military defense of lives and property," said Ron Pisaturo, a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute. The government, he added, should step aside and leave the red planet for private exploitation.
       Pisaturo said that the government's only role in Mars exploration should be to recognize and protect the explorer's property rights.
       "The government's protection of rights should now be extended to space," said Pisaturo. "The U.S. government must recognize that private individuals who explore extraterrestrial land--the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and other heavenly bodies--endow that land with value where there had been none, and those individuals have a moral right to claim and use that land as their private property. They have the right to decide what to do with Mars, just as you have the right to use, sell, or develop your home or property."
       Pisaturo added that a private Mars mission would cost taxpayers nothing. Only those who expected to profit from the mission would invest in it--failure or success would be theirs alone.
       "Is it worth going to Mars?" Pisaturo asked. "Let each individual decide for himself. The government's only role should be to protect property rights, not finance the mission. Recognition of that role is the breakthrough needed by the heroic pioneers who would say, 'I should go to Mars.'"

ARI senior writer Ron Pisaturo is available for interviews.