Astronaut letter to US leadership
I was heartened to see the signatures of Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and Jim Lovell attached to a letter challenging the US leadership to step-up a plan to enable continued activity both in low earth orbit and beyond. If you haven’t read it already, here is a complete copy:
The United States entered into the challenge of space exploration under President Eisenhower’s first term, however, it was the Soviet Union who excelled in those early years. Under the bold vision of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and with the overwhelming approval of the American people, we rapidly closed the gap in the final third of the 20th century, and became the world leader in space exploration.
When President Obama recently released his budget for NASA, he proposed a slight increase in total funding, substantial research and technology development, an extension of the International Space Station operation until 2020, long range planning for a new but undefined heavy lift rocket and significant funding for the development of commercial access to low earth orbit.
Although some of these proposals have merit, the accompanying decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating.
America’s only path to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station will now be subject to an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz (at a price of over 50 million dollars per seat with significant increases expected in the near future) until we have the capacity to provide transportation for ourselves. The availability of a commercial transport to orbit as envisioned in the President’s proposal cannot be predicted with any certainty, but is likely to take substantially longer and be more expensive than we would hope.
It appears that we will have wasted our current ten plus billion dollar investment in Constellation and, equally importantly, we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded.
For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature. While the President’s plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time in the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that ability will not be available for many years.
Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.
Of course, things have changed a bunch in the past 49 years since Yuri Gagarin traveled aboard the first launch into earth orbit. But, we still need some means of keeping our collective chops up science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Private enterprise transports can deliver and service activities in low earth orbit. But, for us to rely on costly Sputnik flights to ferry our astronaut corps to the space station until a shuttle replacement is ready makes no sense to me.
I think what was started with the Constellation program should be carried forward. We need to continue development of a transport system based upon what we already have and what we know works. The goal of reaching the moon by 2020 can be modified to suit a different time table, but it should not be scrapped altogether. I came across a video from a presentation Neil deGrasse Tyson made at the University at Buffalo recently that I think serves the point well.
After taking in the Astronaut letter, the video and comments made by Buzz Aldrin in recent months I think everyone seems to agree about continuing development and space exploration they just have slightly different approaches. Whatever path we follow, it needs to strike a careful balance. I would just hate for the US leadership to initiate action that proves to be a disincentive to its people. We all need to dream of space. And our children need the motivation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
What do you think?.
