The Vision was created to extend human reach beyond its current limit of low Earth orbit. It made the Moon the first destination because it has the material and energy resources needed to create a true space faring system. Recent data from the Moon show that it is even richer in resource potential than we had thought; both abundant water and near-permanent sunlight is available at selected areas near the poles. We go to the Moon to learn how to extract and use those resources to create a space transportation system that can routinely access all of cislunar space with both machines and people. Such a system is the logical next step in both space security and commerce. This goal for NASA makes the agency relevant to important national interests. A return to the Moon for resource utilization contributes to national security and economic interests as well as scientific ones.
There is indeed a new space race. It is just as important and vital to our country's future as the original one, if not as widely perceived and appreciated. It consists of a struggle with both hard and soft power. The hard power aspect is to confront the ability of other nations to deny us access to our vital satellite assets of cislunar space. The soft power aspect is a question: how shall society be organized in space? Both issues are equally important and both are addressed by lunar return. Will space be a sanctuary for science and PR stunts or will it be a true frontier with scientists and pilots, but also miners, technicians, entrepreneurs and settlers? The decisions made now will decide the fate of space for generations. The choice is clear; we cannot afford to relinquish our foothold in space and abandon the Vision for Space Exploration.
Take a photo tour of old and new space in the Southwest US in the book Space Lands by Paul Freeman. Turn each photo page here (try full screen for the best effect).
Update: Here's another link related to rocket history: Rocketrelics.com.
Jeff Foust describes the administration's rollout of the new plan for NASA and the reception that it got: An agency in transition.
Bob Clarebrough argues for a new paradigm for space that involves a partnership of government and private enterprise: Maps and buried treasure
The last 50 years are history and we can’t change that. We can decide that the next half-century will be different: “we can believe in change”, to paraphrase a well-known campaign slogan. The new model spells the end of government monopoly and the opening up of space to entrepreneurial dynamism providing access to all who want to explore and exploit the solar system; the determination must be to replace the “Right Stuff” fixation with the “Wright Stuff” paradigm—that’s what brought us to today and will take us into the future.
Vision and action can change everything—despite the objections.
Vedda, a senior space policy analyst with the Aerospace Corporation, makes it clear in the book that he is not a fan of destination-based approaches like Apollo and the Vision for Space Exploration. “Continuation of the destination-driven approach, which has dominated thinking for a half-century, is a persistent non-vision we cannot afford,” he writes. “Programmatically, human landings on the Moon and Mars are treated like the finish line in a race, and planners have insufficient motivation and resources to think beyond that point.”
Vedda instead argues for a capabilities-based approach, one that arguably is even broader than what NASA has proposed in its new budget. NASA should focus on capabilities that can help life on Earth: something that includes, but is not limited to, Earth sciences work.
The schedule for The Space Show this week begins today (2-3:30 pm PST) with a discussion with Bob Zimmerman about the administration's new space policy proposals.
This Tuesday (7-8:30 pm PST) they will hold the first of the new Space Show Classroom sessions starting with guest panelist Paul Breed to discuss the rocket equation along with co-hosts Drs. Logan and Jurist. (The Space Show Classroom blog will post presentation material shortly before this program.)
On Friday (9:30-11:30 amPST), Kris Kimel of Kentucky Space will talk about "exciting new space programming". On Sunday (12-1:30 pm PST), Brent Sherwood will discuss the NASA Flexible Path option.
While Constellation's mourners keep bringing up the "threat" of a Chinese lunar landing, it's a bit ironic that the architecture the Chinese may use looks far more in the style of the new exploration philosophy that with Apollo on Steroids.
Henry Vanderbilt has posted the latest on the Space Access '010 conference, which will take place April 8-10 in Phoenix, Arizona. Includes confirmed speakers, registration, hotel, etc.
The new White House NASA space exploration policy looks as promising as anything we've seen come from those quarters for a long time. Passing responsibility for basic space access to the US commercial sector while refocusing NASA on developing the technology for future deep-space exploration has potential to radically reduce the costs of both basic access and deep exploration, vastly expanding our future exploration and development possibilities.
But it's a long way from a promising new policy to a successful program. First, the Congress gets to decide what will and will not actually get funded on a year-by-year basis. Then, NASA has to execute whatever program emerges from Congress, one year at a time. A lot can go wrong at every step of the way. We will be watching this process closely. Stay tuned for new Space Access Updates in the coming months.
We will also be discussing this new policy intensively at our next annual conference
BTW: So we have now apparently set China on course to capture the Moon by putting a couple of Taikanouts there with an Apollo repeat. I think the Trillion Yuan cost for that would be the perfect punishment for their devious plot to trick us into implementing an export control regime that successfully crippled our commercial space industry.
