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If you are interested in how we could and why we should explore Beyond Earth Orbit in cislunar space in the next 5-7 years, please read my white paper. I encourage you to post comments with your thoughts.
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Over the weekend I pondered this question, "When will spaceflight be commonplace?" For this exercise, lets assume spaceflight = to/from a destination in Low Earth Orbit. Once again I'd like to offer up some questions to the #SpaceTweeps to share their responses and I'll come back and post my answers as well. 1) When will spaceflight be commonplace (like airline travel)? 2) What government "help" is required to achieve routine spaceflight? 3) What role (if any) does technology play in making spaceflight routine? 4) What will the minimum acceptable level of risk be? 5) At what point (if any) will spaceflight to Low Earth Orbit be profitable?
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Earlier this month I shared with you my thoughts on NASA's new vision and how the new vision could fail. And the weekend before the budget was unveiled I wrote about what I thought NASA should pursue in its future. There has been no shortage of people sharing their thoughts on the FY2011 budget and the revamping of NASA and that is exactly how it should be. People should be heard. To date, the blog post in my opinion that sums things up the best is Changing Horses in Mid Stream. If you haven't read this one yet, it's worth the time.
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For those of you traveling to Houston for the #NASATweetUp being held on February 17th we would like to invite you to a pre-tweetup gathering on Tuesday February 16th starting at 8 pm at Cadillac Bar in Kemah. Come and meet people, hang out, and enjoy the boardwalk on Galveston Bay! The following 13 Tweeps have been selected as NASA Ambassadors - follow them on twitter in preparation for your experience! @skytland, @txflygirl, @edgufry, @saroy, @LucieD_inthesky,
@adllewellyn, @mgrabois, @spacekiwi, @i_leslie, @spasmunkey,
@joelwalker, @jbmccl @absolutspacegrl Please note that not all of the NASA Ambassadors will be able to attend the pre-tweetup gathering. This is really an opportunity for the tweetup participants to mix and mingle the night before the event. #NASATweetUp Press Release
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Is this the new vision the solution? Maybe. The idea is to have NASA do the Research and Development (R&D) work to raise the TRLs from low to high so that they can be turned over the commercial industry. While NASA has continued to do R&D all of these years, they have not been able to invest in everything they'd like to do because human spaceflight is expensive. The concept is, make NASA an R&D institution and have the commercial industry pick up the flying into space portion.
My concern is this looks all grand on paper but at the end of the day where is the money and where is the implementation plan. This plan is subject to the same perils that have doomed previous NASA programs and is at the whim of Congress and the next President(s). What's to keep Congress from cutting the funding (line by line remember) of specific NASA R&D departments? What's to keep the next President from coming in and saying this was a horrible plan and redirect the agency again? Nothing. Remember, there are no guarantees.
How could the new vision fail?
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Here is what I see happening
assuming Congress does not fight the President's vision. NASA will
start implementing this change as soon as Congress allows the FY2010
funds to be redirected. In December, Congress slipped into their
appropriations bill that Congress had to approve the cancellation of
the Constellation program. Congress will fund FY2011 and maybe even
FY2012 as Obama requests. But after that they will begin to decrease
funding just like they have for every NASA program ever conducted
and/or canceled. Why do you always hear that a Government program is
behind schedule and over budget? There is a simple answer for that.
Because Congress only approves and releases funds on a yearly basis and
they typically cut funds from a program as the years go by. It
happened to Apollo (change in direction), Shuttle, ISS (how many times
did Congress try to kill it), X-33/X-34, Orbital Space Plane, shall I
go on?
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There were so many rumors and stories last week in the news about what
was to occur on Feb 1st when the Office of Management & Budget
(OMB) released the President's Recommended budget for NASA for the 2011
Fiscal Year. I wrote my thoughts on course correcting our dreams to try and sum up where we were the weekend before the announcement and where I thought we needed to head.
For those of you who have been living under a rock this past week,
Obama is recommending a major revectoring of NASA and the way manned
spaceflight is conducted in our country. Here are some documents to
peruse if you haven't seen them: |
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This blog post and associated comments has one purpose only and that is to mourn the loss of the Constellation Program and the dreams we had for returning to the moon. The program (outside of budget realities) gave us a chance once not only to dream but to work on leaving LEO and heading to another body in our solar system with the stated of goal of learning to live off-planet including learning how to protect the human body in space for long durations. Please share with us as we take this time to mourn the loss of a program and our associated dreams. Examples include: 1) Share your personal dreams of what Constellation and Exploration meant to you. 2) Share how the cancellation personally affects you.
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So much has been written this past week in newspapers, blogs, facebook,
and twitter about the fate of NASA's human spaceflight program. With
every new American President the forward steps of our exploration into
the Cosmos is up for renewal. That's reality for NASA being what it is;
a government agency. The Orlando Sentinel is the newspaper that started everything this week with this initial article
that Obama plans to cancel the Constellation Program and the mission to
return to the moon. Throughout Wednesday and into the evening, those in
the space industry who use twitter found themselves venting about the
"change" and the unknown future. I was one of them. A second article
stated that $6 Billion over 5 years is to be provided to NASA in order
to develop commercial capability of reaching Low Earth Orbit and
providing an astronaut transport service to the International Space
Station. |
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I
worry about our future in manned spaceflight. It's going to be a tough
ride for the next 10 yrs or more. Besides exploring the cosmos, are you
aware of what manned spaceflight has done to improve your life? Do you
think money for the space program is spent in space and not on earth?
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From an anonymous Constellation employee --
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Free embroidery & Shipping from Fri Nov 27 - Tues Dec 1. Use Promo Code FLFSW Order your Space Tweep Gear at LandsEnd and have the
Space Tweep Logo embroidered on your purchases. We have two logos to choose from; the full logo including the moon and the words "Space Tweep Society" or Meco, our birdonaut, by himself (or herself!) When
shopping, add the item you'd like to purchase to your cart and then
select which logo to have added to it. Sometimes the free shipping doesn't get applied. If this happens to you, call the customer service number on the page and they will fix your order. The LandsEnd folks are really helpful so you shouldn't have any problems. Plus, they love the Space Tweep logo! For those of you ouside of the U.S., you can have your order shipped to you however you will need to place your order via email and work with LandsEnd directly.
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This past Saturday, November 7, was the 14th Annual Purdue Space Day held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. It's an event that I am very fond of as I founded Purdue Space Day back in 1996 when I was an undergraduate at Purdue studying Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering. The event has been sustainable due to the support from Purdue's Aeronautical & Astronautical Department and the dedication/enthusiasm of the student volunteers. What is Purdue Space Day? It is a program that offers
hands on aerospace and engineering activities for children in 3rd – 8th
grade on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The highlight of the day for many is interacting with a Purdue Alumnus
Astronaut who presents a public lecture the night before the event in
addition to a presentation geared for the children the day of Purdue
Space Day. The program is offered free of charge thanks to corporate
and local support. Want to see how Purdue Space Day '09 turned out? Here are a few news articles from Saturday's event:
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After pvaldois posted his blog entry: JPL scientists fight against HSPD-12
I decided I wanted to share my personal HSPD-12 experience. First of all, I am so proud of the JPL employees who filed the lawsuit and are standing up for their rights. I tried to do something similar at JSC but people here were too scared to lose their jobs. I tried to get in touch with a some lawyers and tell my story - but no one was interested. In the end I relented and signed the forms allowing NASA and the government to perform financial and medical background checks on me whenever they wanted. Through my research I discovered that employees at various local companies were dismissed immediately if they refused to sign the forms. My company gave me 2 days to make a decision.
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Order your Space Tweep Gear through November 4th at LandsEnd and have the Space Tweep Logo embroidered FREE on your purchases (a savings of approximately $5-$9) depending on which logo you choose. When shopping, add the item you'd like to purchase to your cart and then select which logo to have added to it. We have two Space Tweep Society logo's at LandsEnd to choose from; the full logo that says Space Tweep Society, and MECO our Space Tweep bird alone. When you get ready to check out you should see that the logo's were given to you FREE!
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I’m going to be
adding two brand new pages to the Space Tweep Society Blog that I am
personally excited about sharing with people.
The first page will highlight annual space outreach programs run by
NASA, Universities, Museums, High Schools, etc. If you know of a
program that should be added to the list please send me the name of the
program, it’s web address, the city/state the event takes place in, the
age range of participants, and 2-3 sentences describing the program and
what makes it stand out from the rest.
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Learn more about how technology from NASA has improved life in your home and your city: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/index2.htm