March 04, 2004
Outgassing in Ohio

John Glenn weighs in on the Moon-Mars plan. Not surprisingly, he doesn't like it -- ostensibly because it is a departure from science-über-alles.

The octogenarian space pioneer's most cutting comments were reserved for NASA's plans to gut the International Space Station of a once-ambitious research agenda, limiting science only to studies applicable to the moon and Mars program.

"We have projects that are planned or in the queue now, projects that people -- academics and laboratories and companies -- have spent millions of dollars to get ready," Glenn said. "That pulls the rug out from under our scientists who placed their faith in NASA, and our scientists within NASA who devoted years and years to their work."

Those wouldn't be the same scientists whose own rides to space and experiments on-orbit you yourself displaced with your Shuttle joyride a few years back, would they, Senator Glenn?

I wonder if he'd come around if the President promised him a ride on a Constellation...?

Posted by T.L. James on March 4, 2004 07:28 PM

Comments

I don't agree with the retired Senator's remarks in Dayton, but they do represent the views of a great many people. While the Bush initiative may, in fact, result in more robotic and scientific missions, there is no denying that the focus of those missions will change. Someone will win, someone will lose, and the usual things will happen.

Those of us who advocate human space travel have not succeeded in convincing the American public that it has a stake in this game. We have not convinced the public that human space travel is worth the expenditure of funds beyond NASA's marginal budget levels. We have not convincingly answered the question: "What's In It For Me?"

I suspect one large chunk of the public thinks human space travel belongs in the realms of Star Trek, in other words, utopian fantasy. Another big chunk thinks it is all about science, much like sending people to the South Pole. I.e., let them do it so long as it's cheap enough that I don't notice or someone else is paying for it.

We need to convince people that it isn't utopian fantasy and that it isn't really about science.

(The science argument has a little merit, but we ought to be reminding people that if robots were the way to do science, JPL and CERN would be staffed with robots instead of people.)

The absolute worst thing we can do is make human space travel a partisan political issue. If it becomes partisan, there is no way to ensure that support and funding can be sustained for the duration. The Defense Department learned this lesson a long time ago, and the space community needs to learn it, too.



Posted by: billg at March 5, 2004 10:04 AM

I don't agree with the retired Senator's remarks in Dayton, but they do represent the views of a great many people. While the Bush initiative may, in fact, result in more robotic and scientific missions, there is no denying that the focus of those missions will change. Someone will win, someone will lose, and the usual things will happen.

Those of us who advocate human space travel have not succeeded in convincing the American public that it has a stake in this game. We have not convinced the public that human space travel is worth the expenditure of funds beyond NASA's marginal budget levels. We have not convincingly answered the question: "What's In It For Me?"

I suspect one large chunk of the public thinks human space travel belongs in the realms of Star Trek, in other words, utopian fantasy. Another big chunk thinks it is all about science, much like sending people to the South Pole. I.e., let them do it so long as it's cheap enough that I don't notice or someone else is paying for it.

We need to convince people that it isn't utopian fantasy and that it isn't really about science.

(The science argument has a little merit, but we ought to be reminding people that if robots were the way to do science, JPL and CERN would be staffed with robots instead of people.)

The absolute worst thing we can do is make human space travel a partisan political issue. If it becomes partisan, there is no way to ensure that support and funding can be sustained for the duration. The Defense Department learned this lesson a long time ago, and the space community needs to learn it, too.



Posted by: billg at March 5, 2004 10:05 AM