Search this Site

The President's Message

By Steve Bartlett

The space press is abuzz this week with the news of the Chinese astronaut, Yang Liwei, and his successful orbital flight. The pilot, as well as the thousands of engineers, scientists, technicians, and support staff for the Shenzhou V flight, have demonstrated their ability to build and fly a complex spacecraft and are to be applauded for their achievement.

Taikonaut Yang Liwei aboard Shenzhou V.

Among the pundits commenting on this flight are a few who point to the stated goals that the Chinese are pursuing, including permanent orbital stations and manned bases on the Moon, and say that this could be the start of a new Space Race. These observers have expressed the hope that this new competition would “light the fire” under the U.S. space program and get it moving with the same zeal shown during the Apollo days.

While healthy competition is a good thing and has caused individuals and nations to achieve amazing things, we cannot rely solely on having a new competitor to get our own space house in order.

In the nearly thirty years after Apollo, NASA has been an agency without a firm direction, guided more by the desires of leaders in different technology areas than by the specific need to use those technologies to get anywhere. We’ve often read stories about different NASA technology programs and how they could “eventually be used to support a manned mission to XYZ” (where XYZ may be the Moon, Mars, asteroids, or some other potential target.) But with the exception of George Bush’s short-lived, unfunded, and ill-fated Space Exploration Initiative back in 1989, there’s been no one, from the President on down, who’s been willing to direct NASA to go anywhere in particular. And until that happens, our space program will probably continue to flounder.

So what can we do about it? I would suggest that each of us contact the President, the Vice-President, and Senators Boxer and Feinstein via post or email (or both) and tell them that its time for NASA to stop spinning around the Earth and go somewhere. If you think that the next goal should be going back to the Moon (my personal favorite), then say so. If you think that it should be Mars, then say so. Or anywhere else that you think should be our next objective. But tell them that you want them to go SOMEWHERE!

The achievements and technologies developed during the first ten years of human space exploration far exceed those made in the following thirty years. Space has become passe to a lot of young people and today’s cars possess more advanced technology than a lot of space vehicles. Its time for that to change. Giving a firm direction to NASA is a good way to make that change.