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July 2, 2005
Another response. . .
This time, I'm responding to the comment by William on this response to Half Sigma, and his related blog entry ---
I agree that the Shuttle needs to be replaced, and the current administration is racing toward that goal faster than anyone since Kennedy.
NASA has been quietly squirreling money away (legally) for a return to the moon (and permanent base) since the Reagan administration. NASA Administrator Griffin and Tom Delay recently announced in Houston that we now have sufficient financial reserves to make the return. It's very important to note that this time we don't have to invent the computer or the fuel cell or a rocket program from scratch. We have experience living and working in space and many of the hazzards of occupying space have been overcome.
Realize that we still haven't lost anyone actually IN space.
The first lift of the Space Elevator is scheduled for 2018, not that far off. The SE will replace rocket insertions for all manner of missions, greatly reducing the need for a rocket powered tugboat.
The moon was a "katie bar the door" race into the unknown. Much money and brain power was used trying to accomodate all the unknowns of travel to the moon. Today we know that landers won't sink up to their antennae, and we understand the needs of humans in low gravity environments for long periods of time.
Just like Columbus striking out for the new world, the unknown, the first moon missions were ones of discovery. Probes, if you will. We knew that we had much to learn about the process and ourselves before we could make a sustained "go" of it.
The ISS has gone a long way to teaching us how to live and work in space. Spacelab and Mir were testbeds, the ISS is the prototype and now were at the stage that we can turn the ISS into the working model.
Yes the ISS looks like the old Mir and Skylab projects on steroids, but realize that the design is COMPLETELY modular. ISS-1 will be completely replaced in the coming decade with new modules built by our partners (who are significantly behind us in motivation and technology), who we are "dragging up" along with us.
The political necessity of our partners ensures a long term interest in the program and hopefully can prosper into a new "higher order" of cooperation and communication.
It seems as though most supporters of the space program complaints stem because we're not moving as fast as people would like. I agree. I think we should take more risks and run faster, but politically that's impractical when each setback is met with calls to scrap whole portions of the space program for political gain. Imagine if each time a British ship sank, the Admiralty ordered all it's ships back to port for an investigation. Then called for a new frigate design and numerous safety evaluations (we'd still all be in Europe weaving textiles by hand and using horse drawn plows for farming).
Politics (particularly the Clinton administration which was downright scared of NASA except as a feelgood program) has kept the program down, but this administration has taken off the shackles and is running NASA at a higher clip than ever before (even moreso than the Apollo program).
Private and Public partnerships are developing finally, we're going back to the moon, back to Mars, and exploring farther out and in more detail than ever before. The political and financial capital being spent on NASA now, won't mature until the early part of the next decade, but when it's realized, it will still be too little for those in the know, and too much for those who don't understand the necessity of it for mankind. The reality will be a balance between the two camps.
If you take some time to look through NASA current mission profiles and the big picture,Moon, Mars and Beyond you'll see that there's direction to NASA, it's no longer scraping the financial crumbs thrown at it to piece together a continued presence in space. Our presence is now expanding, with each piece of the ISS, with each probe to Mars and with each deep space exploratory mission. All of this is coming together to give us the tools and knowledge necessary to plant a flag out there in the vacuum of space and stay. Expanding the human footprint is our one true calling in the universe. It's the calling mankind to answer the questions the vastness of space offeres. It's our destiny and obligation to strike out into the unknown, see what's there and learn to live in it and use it for our ends.
The Space program promises economic viability for more people than any other initiative of mankind. Abundant, clean, cheap energy is there waiting for us just above our atmosphere, precious resources are waiting to be plucked from the asteroids between our nearest neighbor and us. A new world awaits us on Mars, one which we already have the ability to mold in our image, promising an outlet for our burgeoning population. New discoveries in space promise to make us live longer, and healthier than ever before, and the promise of Space's rewards may well give humanity a common reference and goal so that one day we may put our petty differences behind us in a unified human voyage of discovery.
Finally, I agree that the shuttle is not too sexy anymore. It'd be nice to replace it. The ISS needs to be bigger and modernized, we need to be on the moon and we need to have human Martian explorers on their way within a decade or two. I disagree that it's going too slow however, I posit that in comparison with the development of the Americas, it's moving forward at a breakneck speed given the obstacles and distances involved. We've become accustomed to the Sci-Fi view of space where we should be jumping off the planet with ease, and overcoming difficulties within the scope of an hour with commercial breaks. The realities are far different. We're entering into a hostile environment. We've just begun to understand the dynamics of low-earth permanent settlement, and just beginning to leap out to high Earth orbit again.
If you really want it to go forward faster, write your Congressmen and Senators, drop a line to the White House. Point out that Space Exploration and Exploitation makes America money, increases American morale and makes us look better on the world stage. Point out also that we NEED to do this in the spirit of exploration that led to the very creation of America, her democracy and her place as leader of world community. Point out that we need the Space program for the sake of solving many of the worlds most difficult problem, namely energy production.
People write their leaders everyday because they want a bigger Social Security check, they hate the war in Iraq, they despise the vitriol of American politics, they are concerned about education or complain about corruption. Very few people write to support NASA, and we all know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so if you really want NASA to move forward, Start Squeaking! Let your elected representatives know that you understand the value of the space program to America, the world and mankind. Explain that "you get it" that the Space program strengthens the economy and provides for a better quality of life, and point out that around the globe, people look at our spaceshots with sense of awe and faith in mankind, and by tranferrence, America.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at July 2, 2005 11:20 AM
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