“The National Space Society (NSS) commends NASA and the Executive Branch for proposing to increase spending for science, technology, and sustainable economic development in space; however, we believe the President’s 2011 budget request would leave the job only partly done.”

We need to support a space program (human and robotic) that goes beyond low-Earth orbit. 

We need a space program that will bring the inner solar system into our economic sphere and extend human presence throughout the solar system in accordance with U.S. national space policy, by adopting a long-term vision including power and materials from space.

The confluence of interests necessary to establish and maintain a national Space Policy is forged from a potent blend of promise, political interest, and economic wisdom … the promise of new real wealth — in terms of knowledge, resources, and technology;  the political interest of the body politic, and those that serve it; and last, but not least, the economic wisdom to choose goals and missions sufficiently compelling that they can and will endure across multiple administrations.

The proposed NASA 2011 Budget is pregnant with opportunity, laying forth a cornucopia of constructive endeavors in a reasoned programmatic framework while at the same time seeking to strike a balance between proposed funding and the programs to be carried forward. 

That said, technology development without requirements, without a set of missions that it is intended to enable, runs the risk of irrelevance if not being deemed a squandering of resources.

The challenge before us is to establish policy that sustains the confluence of interests necessary to achieve the future we wish to see come to pass … people living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity.

We need to support and expect a bright future in space, and the private sector cannot do it all alone.

Our space endeavors, government and commercial, provide strategic capabilities that define us as a nation and help maintain our leadership in the peaceful exploration and development of space.  

We need a comprehensive space program worthy of a nation willing to lead on the space frontier.  

Accordingly, whatever restructuring of NASA’s future is sustained and funded by this Congress, and those that come later, should be held to the standard of goals and destinations that foster the expansion of human activities and civilization into space beyond low Earth orbit. 

Ad Astra!

- Gary P. Barnhard

Gary Barnhard, Chairman of the NSS Executive Committee, states, “Investment in technology development needs to be focused on the requirements to enable real missions. We need to make the best use of the International Space Station and other key resources both on the ground and in space to improve our ability to use space for the betterment of humanity, and to hasten the day that those new missions can be flown. Supporting private sector space capabilities is a good and necessary step toward further space development. It makes sense to fund commercial providers for cargo resupply and return, as well as for crew transportation once their services have been demonstrated to be safe. Our space endeavors, government and commercial, provide strategic capabilities that define us as a nation and help maintain our leadership in the peaceful exploration and development of space. However, a truly ambitious space program always focuses on what’s next.”

NSS supports returning people to the Moon for the benefits it can bring to our home planet and as a starting point for people learning how to work and live elsewhere in the solar system. In keeping with the President’s original campaign suggestion to delay returning to the Moon by five years, NSS calls for a human return to the Moon by 2025. Such a mission should emphasize self-sufficiency and permanent human habitation by developing technologies that will enable humans to “live off the land.” According to Gordon Woodcock, the last President of the L5 Society (parent organization of NSS) and previous chair of the NSS Policy Committee, “Economic growth and humanity’s expansion into space require that we learn how to go somewhere and live there. That learning can only come through frequent access, and the Moon is the closest destination. Learning how to develop propellant on the Moon would be worth the price of the trip.”

“Technology development is good but requires focus to be meaningful,” asserts Greg Allison, NSS Executive VP and chairman of the NSS Policy Committee. “If we are to perform research for a heavy-lift launch vehicle, we should plan to develop one that matches our destinations and sustainability goals. We should build and fly prototypes along the way. We need to have missions in mind to make this work.”

All of this requires a sustained, generational commitment to NASA’s long-term mission. NSS is aware of the financial constraints under which the U.S. government will be operating in the next few years. Tax dollars should be spent wisely. We believe a larger budget for ALL of NASA’s efforts is needed to adequately engage the private sector and is in the long-term best interests of the country.

This is a copy of an official NSS Press Release

Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt

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Where is NASA going to go?

Garver: This program is aimed at creating those really transformational technologies without forcing on the taxpayer right now either the burden of stretching old technologies or wishful thinking that we were going to go somewhere in a period of time when we weren’t. Rather than setting those destinations and timelines, we’re setting goals for capabilities that can take us further, faster, and more affordably into space. The Moon definitely continues to be an important central destination for the future, together with near-Earth asteroids and eventually the moons and surface of Mars. Now we are focusing on reversing the underinvestment we’ve had for decades in a lot of these new technologies.

…We are looking at actual flagship missions, our teams are already hard at work scoping those, and there are a number of things that we will be laying out within the next couple of months on specific flagship missions and specific technologies that we are going to be investing in. Some of these technologies are listed in the budget documentation like fuel depots and so forth on orbit so that we can go further.

With Ares V cancelled, what is the prospect for heavy lift capability?

Garver: The heavy lift and propulsion R&D budget is very robust, 3.1 billion over 5 years, 559 million in ’11 alone…. It will focus on those technologies needed to support next-generation space launch and propulsion technologies. So this is not a restacking of existing technologies for heavy lift launch vehicles. In fact we were not making an investment in heavy lift technologies in the former plan until 2016 so this entire 3.1 billion for heavy lift technologies is before we would have even been able to do that, so our intent is to reduce the cost and shorten the development time frame so even by then we are ready to do something new and different.

…As we were just discussing, we weren’t even investing in heavy lift until 2016 in the old budget. We have a robust program here which I believe will get us certainly beyond low-Earth orbit, to the Moon, to the asteroids, with our partners, on a timetable that would definitely beat where we would have been heading. Keep in mind we found out during the Augustine review that we weren’t going to the Moon in 2020 and all the headlines that we were unfortunately were not the reality. So the Augustine Report made it clear that we wouldn’t have gotten beyond low-Earth orbit until 2028 and even then would not have had the funding to build a lander. So we had lost the Moon and what this program does is give us back the solar system.

Do you think you will ever see a human walk on the surface of the Moon again in your lifetime?

Garver: Personally, I absolutely believe that. I believe I could still do it myself as a matter of fact. What this does is open up more people to be going more places in a way that is not on the back of the taxpayers but is doing those things that are meaningful as we go into space. This shouldn’t be just about rockets, it should be about what we do when we get there and where we are going that’s exciting. So we’re going to be investing in those technologies that allow that to happen in the future for many more people and to do a lot of different things as well as go to the asteroids and to Mars.

NASA Budget Information

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Read the full story.

“The White House has decided to begin funding private companies to carry NASA astronauts into space, but the proposal faces major political and budget hurdles, according to people familiar with the matter. The controversial proposal, expected to be included in the Obama administration’s next budget, would open a new chapter in the U.S. space program. The goal is to set up a multiyear, multi-billion-dollar initiative allowing private firms, including some start-ups, to compete to build and operate spacecraft capable of ferrying U.S. astronauts into orbit—and eventually deeper into the solar system.”

See full article: White House Decides to Outsource NASA Work.

Sources:
BBC News: EADS Astrium develops space power concept
Earth Times: Astrium to build satellites to haul solar energy from space

In the 21st century, the need for alternatives to the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity has become so great that space is now a real option. The Journal has asked prominent scientists, engineers, business people and others to answer the following question: What has changed in the last 30 years that now makes it possible (perhaps a mandate) to seriously entertain the idea of a major new satellite business: the gathering/concentrating of sunlight in space and beaming it to earth to be used as an alternative source of electrical energy?

The table of contents of this special issue includes links to video and audio material as well as the following articles: