Bush's Space Panel Seeks Public Input

yahoo ^ | 11 Feb 04 | Robert Roy Britt

[RightWhale]

Bush's Space Panel Seeks Public Input

By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer, SPACE.com

President Bush's new space advisory commission for getting humans to the Moon and Mars has launched a web site seeking public input with the promise of reading all comments.

Meanwhile, the nine-member panel of scientists and business leaders will hold its first public hearing Wednesday in Washington, DC. and other public meetings will be announced shortly, SPACE.com has learned.

The web site, moontomars.org , solicits input via a "contact us" menu item. The web site will also communicate information directly to the public.

"We view public feedback as an important part of our deliberations," panel member and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said via e-mail today during a break in the panel's first meeting, a private affair. "Every submitted comment to our new commission web site will be read by one or more of us on the commission and supporting staff." Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, said public hearings will soon be scheduled for "different locations across the country to ensure that we come as close to the voices of the public as is reasonable, given our short timetable. That being said, the assembled talent and life experience of the commissioners is quite high, and so we will be no less guided by the sum of this expertise." The team is supposed to map out a plan to achieve Bush's goal of putting astronauts back on the Moon between 2015 and 2020, with an eye toward a manned Mars mission sometime thereafter. It is to report to the White House within 4 months.

Analysts say Bush's vision faces many hurdles. Increases to NASA's budget must be approved by Congress, and the torch will have to be carried by future presidents.

"The vision must sustain public support longer than a presidential election cycle or political cycles in general, as well as economic cycles," Tyson said in an interview last week.

The panel's lengthy formal name is Presidential Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy. On the new web site, it calls itself the President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond, more directly reflecting its charge.

The first public hearing will be held Feb. 11 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. EST at the National Transportation Safety Board Conference Center, 429 L' Enfant Plaza, SW. The meeting is open to the public so long as seats are available.

Among the topics will be an overview of the commission's goals and testimony by federal agencies involved in space exploration. A discussion period is planned. The event will be carried live on NASA TV.

etc. . . .

[RightWhale]

They want to hear from everyone. Even if it is "where in the Constitution . . ." or "better things to do on earth" or actual practical suggestions, they need to know where the citizens stand. They'll probably take polite comment from non-citizens as well.

[KantianBurke]

Ditch the 1965 UN Treaty on Space please.

[livius]

That's a start.

Bumping this up - we have some knowledgeable "Science Freepers" here who could probably make some positive input.

Of course, many of them may already actually be working in the space program...one never knows about Freepers.

[RightWhale]

I already made that comment to their website. :)

[RightWhale]

FYI

[Explorer89]

One never knows....

But answer this: how can we swallow the risk of going to the moon and to Mars if we cannot swallow the risk of sending the shuttle to service the Hubble. I read it on CNN yesterday that only missions that go to the Space Station orbit are allowed in case of a problem like Columbia's. If we can't stand the risk of getting to the Hubble, we're never going anywhere.

[hopespringseternal]

If we can't stand the risk of getting to the Hubble, we're never going anywhere.

Sometimes you just have to stop throwing good money after bad.

If we don't start making real changes to the way we do things, we will never get anywhere in space. That doesn't mean there aren't great things like Hubble that will be left behind. It means that there are better things ahead if we can manage to switch paradigms and go for them.

[cogitator]

If we can't stand the risk of getting to the Hubble, we're never going anywhere.

It's only too risky because it's the Space Shuttle. We need a better, more reliable, and hopefully considerably less expensive (to paraphrase Daniel Goldin) way of getting crew and equipment into space. Repealing the law of gravity would be a good first step, but there isn't much support for that in Congress. D*mn liberals.

[Brett66]

BTTT

[unibrowshift9b20]

hopespringseternal wrote: "Sometimes you just have to stop throwing good money after bad."

Amen. Hubble was a good telescope, but there is no satellite that is worth enough to send repeated shuttle missions to fix it. Especially when the shuttle is now counting up the final number of its future missions. Especially when the next fix-it mission was only to extend it BEYOND its original lifetime. Now they are just cutting it back to regular. How many would that be, the third or fourth fix-it-up mission to Hubble?

Its really a shame that Americans would settle for pretty pictures over real adventure, exploration, progress, and colonization.

Hubble represents the NASA liberals want. They don't want NASA to be something America can be proud of and use to show everybody else how great America is; they want to use NASA to show the world how "its a small world after all" and how we are exploiting the environment. Now, there's nothing wrong with these beliefs: they have their place and are perfectly legitimate, but people come to post on free republic because they believe in the opposite ideas: that the world and the cosmos are ours for the taking, and that a powerful America is the reality, and perhaps even a good reality.

[RightWhale]

they want to use NASA to show the world how "its a small world after all"

There may be someting to that. The Goresat still sits in its storeroom until Algore is kissed by fate and turns into a real little boy.

[anymouse]

Space ping

[Explorer89]

Sometimes you just have to stop throwing good money after bad.

Sigh.

It's not that I'm so in love with the Hubble or the Shuttle. I am disheartened by the inability to assume a little risk. People are allowed to bungee-jump off a bridge, but astronauts who VOLUNTEER are not allowed to risk their lives. However, we can ORDER our soldiers to Iraq. (disclaimer: I am not opposed to the war in Iraq, just making an illustration!)

Bottom line: how can we reach for the stars when we have to put padding on the playgrounds?

[hopespringseternal]

I am disheartened by the inability to assume a little risk.

Well, yeah, there is that. But I would say that attitude comes more from the politicians than NASA or the astronauts. Really, the number of people killed in space exploration so far is vanishingly low and a real indication that we aren't really doing all that much. Even if you assume the risk is high (doubtful) the exposure is so low that over the course of their careers, astronauts are in much greater danger from their commute to work than going into space.

It isn't that you want to kill people, it is that people die when pushing the envelope. The fourteen people killed by the shuttle were due to bad management more than anything else.

Management is either paranoid or complacent. Right now, paranoia rules.

[Explorer89]

Amen.