It sounds like the Augustine Committee will be recommending to the president that NASA not go to the Moon on its current budget. It’s a sad reality, but refreshing none the less. I really hope that good will come of this.
I do not know what the best option is, but I do believe that Mars Exploration is what NASA should be doing. I like what Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon, thinks. He believes that NASA should guide and help other nations and companies get to the moon, but start on its path to Mars, blazing a trail, so to speak. That’s how I feel. Leave Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for private industry, and newer space powers.
The International Space Station can be a great tool for learning and testing things. Since we spent 50 to 100 billion on the orbiting lab, it only makes since that we should utilize it for our future exploration. But NASA should not get caught up in resupply and crew transport. That, again, should be left up to companies, and smaller upcoming space nations. NASA can have a small budget to coordinate it, since it is important.
For lunar exploration, since we have been there, we do have know-how, but we have only done it one way, the heavy lift way, and that way will not work with somebody on a budget. We should commit a small budget (say 1 or 2 billion a year) on helping and partnering with other nations and companies to land on the moon. We should do this in a way that creates an economy on the moon. Our planets economy is not just global right now; it extends into space, but only up to Geostationary Orbit, where our communications satellites and such are. That needs to be expanded to the moon. This can be done in 15 years; it just takes the will to CREATE a market. The ISS has created a market in LEO, now we need a lunar outpost to create a market on the moon.
All while doing that, NASA should focus on getting people to Mars. We can do that with our current space shuttle architecture if we wanted too. I don’t know if it’s too late for that though, with things starting to be dismantled for the Constellation program. You can replace the space shuttle with a cargo pad, and there you have it, a Heavy Lifter. This can be done now. Just watch this video here.
It’s not easy to get to Mars, I’m not saying it is, but it is not as hard as going to the moon was in 1961. We can do it with current technology too using the Mars Direct strategy.
These are things that NASA can and must do. No matter what though, if we want to explore new worlds and not just hang out in LEO, then NASA’s budget must be raised by at least 3 billion a year. If I had my way, NASA would have 30 Billion a year for space activities. This would not only give NASA enough money for Human Spaceflight, but for other area’s like robotic spaceflight. This will inspire our youth, and spur our economy by added aerospace activity.
This is why I want to someday start my own space company. I believe that we should expand into space, because it will better our society as a whole. We will be freer too because of a new frontier. Most of human history was an unhappy one, but with the new frontier of the Americas 400 years ago, that changed, people needed freedom (freedom of ideas) to survive in the frontier. America was freer in the 1800’s because of the West. Frontier societies (dynamic societies) require freedom; static societies (a society without an expanding frontier) do not. Now that the frontier is closed we are no longer a dynamic society, we are slowly turning back into a static one. If we do not expand into space, it will only be a matter of time before our society reverts back to the human norm of tyranny and lack of individual liberty. Mars is the answer. I want to see a colony on Mars by the end of the 21st Century. When I start my own company, the colonization of Mars will be its ultimate mission.
