Planetary Society Urges Support for the Augustine Committee Conclusions

Pasadena, CA, — Today, Norman Augustine, the Chair of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, testifies to the U.S. Congress to present the summary of their final report to the Obama Administration. The Committee made a number of important conclusions and suggestions for changes in Constellation, the currently planned U.S. human spaceflight program.

I belong to the Planetary Society and like much of what they do, but disagree with their frequent advocacy of robot exploration of space over human missions. We need to develop over time a permanent presence in space, get some of mankind's eggs into another basket and open a new frontier, as GOD and Heinlein intended. I'd be delighted to achieve such via non-governmental funding, but at the moment such is quite sparse some I'm stuck pushing the lame government horse. Any ideas to get the government out of the way and speed private manned space initiatives realistically mainly await a different administration.

I have nothing against robotic space exploration, but some of it could be done as well a generation from now and this report basically advises ending nearly all spending on manned space flight. I'm sure I could squeeze useful funding out the the budget for ACORN, Planned Parenthood, Americorps and the NEA as a start. I would still push the search to identify and determine the orbits of near earth asteroids. That is relatively cheap and potentially of world shattering importance. I'd also support missions to develop the ability to change the orbits of such; we may need such tech on short notice sometime. Experimenting on asteroids with orbits safely within ours should be an eventual goal. I wouldn't what to trust the fate of mankind on government getting anything right the first time.

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