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How Do We Do It?

By George Osorio

As the rover "Spirit" continued to beam pictures of the Martian surface to Earth, President Bush shared with the American public his vision for exploring space. NASA is now directed to focus its resources on phasing out the Space Shuttle by 2010, ridding itself of the International Space Station by 2013, and embarking on a mission to put humans on the Moon by the middle of the next decade, eventually placing humans on the surface of Mars by the year 2030. Already, NASA has taking action to find the funds, having made the decision to terminate the Hubble Space Telescope project. Will America buy into this vision well enough to make it a reality as envisioned by the Bush administration? I certainly hope so, but I have my doubts.

Having worked in the aerospace industry for more than 20 years, most of those years working on NASA programs, I have seen first hand the real obstacles to having NASA perform when it comes to human space exploration. With more than eight major centers spread all over thee country, each with unprecedented autonomy working on vastly different programs, NASA is currently incapable of carrying out a mandate the size of the one suggested by President Bush, especially with the relatively small budget allocated to the space agency and given the whims of Congress. Is there a better way to execute this vision?

I believe that a more easily executed plan towards the same vision of landing humans on Mars, and one that will more effectively galvanize America and the world, is for NASA to lead an international coalition of nations and private enterprise to work on the single objective of landing humans on the planet Mars, bypassing the Moon. The entire world participates, everyone is a stakeholder, and this will assure success, despite NASA's existing bureaucracy and our constantly changing government. This can be done in half the time expressed by Mr. Bush and will hold more significance for the human race than if we attempt a return to the Moon alone first, potentially floundering because of funding problems, political indifference, or because some other country beats us to it, and thus leaving us far short of making it to Mars.

Today, we are seeing pictures of the surface of Mars not much different from the ones beamed back by Viking almost thirty years ago. In those years, could we have done more to advance our ability to send humans beyond Earth orbit? I think so; but, hindsight being 20-20, we certainly lost our way. Is President Bush's new vision the one to put us back on track? I hope so, for America's sake. However, in my opinion, it is not bold enough to hold public attention long enough to make it a success, especially in the international arena where moral support is crucial. To paraphrase the words of President Kennedy, it's time for us to once again do the hard things. The next time we take pictures of Mars, I'd like to see a human in the background. Mr. President, let's just go to Mars!