The Augustine Commission – Old Habits Die Hard

Image Credit: NASA Image

NASA Administrator General Charles Bolden, former astronaut, has made a number of speeches and statements that say little about the upcoming report from The Augustine Commission, nor his views about the future course of NASA Human space Flight exploration goals and architecture, but speak volumes about his view of the culture of NASA and Capital Hill. Bolden said the following about the push for commercial crew launch during a commercial space seminar held 23 September 2009 on Capitol Hill: “Old habits die hard. Many of us who have grown up in the traditional space program, you know, we really believe we have all the answers. It has to be our way or no way at all,” he said. “I don’t believe that. I am becoming more and more convinced every day in this job that there are different ways that we can and must do this.”

He described the COTS program with SpaceX to demonstrate the Dragon supply vehicle on a Falcon 9 rocket, and the separate contract with Orbital Sciences Corp. to develop a competing cargo module and rocket. Bolden said that the COTS efforts in Low Earth Orbit abilities “will grow jobs in engineering, design and research, and it will spur economic growth as capabilities for new markets are created.” He wants to make NASA and the space industry innovative, and attractive to new talent. More recently, in a speech delivered to aerospace representatives and U. S. lawmakers on 8 October 2009, Bolden related his initial refusal of President Obama’s request to head NASA. He described his previous eight month assignment in the early 1990’s as Assistant Deputy Director of NASA. He hated it. “It was the worst eight months of my life.” One of the jobs was to corral support for the International Space Station. It succeeded by one vote. Concerning his unease with Washington power brokering: “I am not going to get used to this culture,” he said. “I don’t want to get used to this culture. But if you will allow me to do the job that you asked me to do, I will do it. And I will do it well.” He candidly admits his time at NASA may be brief. But many are hopeful that Bolden will have a long and influential stay. Bolden acknowledges the concerns of the Washington beltway. He has met with members of the House and has met with members of the Senate. The political concerns are well known,and he added, “But, I can’t do anything if we don’t change the way we operate.” Bolden does not want to “back into” a NASA program from the perspective of “here’s a budget, how much can you do with it.” Concerning the rationale for the NASA program: If you’re not doing it for a reason, I think you ought not to be doing it. Which goes straight to one of the key elements emphasized by members of the Augustine Commission, that destinations are not goals. The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) established a destination, the Moon by 2015 (no later than 2020), and then political indifference to funding crippled the ability to achieve the destination. At least the Augustine Commission has articulated a significant goal, the expansion of human civilization into the Solar System. Bolden has been meeting as many as nine hours a week with his senior team, and indicated that they had pretty well settled the “why” question. They are now looking at the architectural options and developing the recommendation for the President. Given his concern with the budgetary approach taken by part the Augustine Commission deliberations, and the types of missions and architecture that could fit within a given budget, it appears that the recommendations to Obama by Bolden and NASA will be a “why” driven program.

The World At Night – Report from the Scene

The Educational Outreach programs of the National Space Society of Phoenix and the Planetary Society participated in today’s The World At Night exhibition at Christown Mall in Phoenix.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 children and parents stopped by between 10 AM and 3 PM to ask questions, collect trading cards, copies of the Ad Astra magazine, coloring sheets, stickers, decals, bookmarks, photographs and fact sheets from the members. Activities included making soda straw rockets and mission patches. Around a hundred soda straw rockets were built and launched.

The Challenger Space Center in Peoria brought out their Liquid Nitrogen demonstrations, the Dry Ice Comet, Freeze Dried Ice Cream and the Space Helmet Activity.

The Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration put on some captivating exhibits including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera results from the spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon, and information on Mars, Robotics and Meteorites.

Hard At Work

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Exhibit

Tomorrow’s News – NSS Phoenix Space News

28 September 2009

• Stephen Hawking called for a massive investment in establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars in a lecture in honour of NASA’s 50th anniversary. He argued that the world should devote about 10 times as much as NASA’s current budget – or 0.25% of the world’s financial resources – to space.
• The Ares I processing continues toward a 27 October 2009 launch. Descriptions of progress and problems can be seen here.
• For a very detailed view of the lunar surface from the LRO mission, check out this image.

For folks looking for tidbits on space exploration, add NSS Phoenix Space News page to your RSS feed.

Space Tourism – Taking Off?

Two magazines arrived in my mailbox last week. Both had “Space Tourism” as their cover story. one was Ad Astra (Summer 2009), the quarterly magazine of the National Space Society. The other was Aviation Week (September 7, 2009). On their cover, both magazines had photographs of Virgin Galactic’s White Knight Two, built by Scaled Composites in Mojave, California. While the Virgin Galactic / Scaled Composite venture (at $200,00 per flight) is the best known, there are a lot of other private spacecraft in development. XCOR – Augustine Commission member, Jeff Greason is CEO of XCOR. Their Lynx vehicle will carry one pilot and one passenger to an altitude of 38 miles (61 km). Total flight time is around 30 mijnutes from takeoff to landing. Propulsion is a liquid oxygen / kerosene rocket engine (Lynx 5K18). The Lynx Mark 2 is designed for 68 miles (110 km). Cost is $95,000 per flight. Rocketplane Global – Having spent in excess of $24 million on their XP suborbital space plane, the financial mess has made it difficult to raise capital. Chuck Lauer, CEO, said that more than $100 million of additional costs would be needed to get to first flight. Blue Origin – Jeff Bezos’ company has been conducting test flights of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle since 2006. “Flight opportunities in 2011 may be availablefor autonomous or remotely-controlled experiments on an un-crewed flight test”, according to the website. Talis Enterprise – Testing of the BlackSky prototype is scheduled for 2010. Maximum altitude is 28 miles (46 km). A larger six passenger craft, Enterprise, is scheduled to begin flying passengers in 2013. Cost is estimated to be between $30,000 and $50,000 per flight. EADS Astrium – The winged space plane for suborbital tourism has been put on hold, pending the current economic situation. Space Adventures – Having announced plans in 2006 to build a suborbital vehicle, the company is focusing instead on trips to the ISS aboard Russian Soyuz space craft. Armadillo Aerospace – Having already won the Level 1 $350,000 prize in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, John Carmack (DOOM and Quake) and his company are in the lead to capture the Level 2 prize of $1,000,000. However, they have announced that a deal to build a suborbital tourism vehicle will not happen.

Image: Dave Fischer used by permission

NSS Shirts, Hats, ETC. available NOW !!!

Here is the link you can visit to get your NSS clothing and merchandise:

www.cafepress.com/spacetourism

NSS Chapter Project and Events Committees

Information needed  from each NSS Chapter in order to put YOUR Chapter Event / Project information on an NSS Chapter Project and Events web page:

Chapter Name Chapter Contact (full name, e-mail) Project/Event Title Project/Event Description Project/Event weblink PR received for project

 

Please indicate if this is a “Project” or an “Event” as well s the date(s) these take place. 

NSS Chapters Committee

About the Chapters Committee

• This committee is charged with the responsibility of fostering productive relations between chapters and between chapters and the National Space Society at large. The committee monitors programs for and of chapters and makes recommendations on projects and programs to serve the mutual interests of NSS and its chapters.
• The Chapters’ Assembly will report to the NSS Board through the Chapters Committee.
• This committee shall be comprised of board members who volunteer their services to the committee, regional board members, and appointed members from the chapters’ community who are willing to serve in established committee posts established to conduct the business of the committee. Appointments are subject to the approval of the NSS Executive Committee.
• The Chair of this committee is the NSS Vice President of Chapters.

We are currently operating under the 2001 Chapters Committee Bylaws.Committee Members

As of November 16, 2006 the NSS Vice President of Chapters is Candace Pankanin and the following committee officers have been appointed:

• Chair: Candace Pankanin
• Chapters Assembly Representative: Thomas Koszoru
• Advisor and Facilitator: Larry Ahearn
• Secretary: Arthur Smith
• International Chapters Coordinator: Michael James
• U.S. Chapters Coordinator: Bennett Rutledge
• Projects and Events Coordinator: Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto
• Resources Coordinator:  Dale Grady
• Internet Coordinator: Ronnie Lajoie
• David Stuart

The general membership of the committee also includes the following individuals:

Jim Spellman, Bryce Walden, Claire McMurray, George Howard, Harry Reed, Elaine Walker, Craig Ward, John Strickland, Bill Higgins, Mike Fulda, Don Doughty, Mark Hopkins, Greg Allison and Bruce Mackenzie,  Fred Becker, Peter Kokh

For additional information about the Chapters Committee, please contact Candace Pankanin 

NSS Awards and Scholarships

The National Space Society Awards Committee manages a number of awards which are given annually at the International Space Development Conferences. These include awards for individual volunteer effort, awards for NSS chapters, the Space Pioneer Awards, and two significant awards given in alternate years:

• The Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Award, given in even-numbered years (2004, 2006, etc.); the 2006 recipient was General Chuck Yeager.
• The NSS Von Braun Award, given in odd-numbered years (2003, 2005, etc.); the 2005 recipient was Burt Rutan.

NSS also conducted an NSS Banner design contest.

Other scholarships and award activities NSS provides or assists with include:

• NSS-ISU scholarship, worth $12,000, to the International Space University. Application deadline is December 31 of each year, for study in the following year. 2005 recipient was Robert Guinness of St. Louis.
• EURISY international youth science fiction writing competition (NSS provided US support in 2005).
• Permission to Dream from the Space Frontier Foundation is partly sponsored by NSS.

READING SPACE: NSS Reviews and Recommended Reading

READING SPACE:  NSS Reviews and Recommended Reading

Whenever you purchase anything from Amazon.com, please use any of our links to enter their site. NSS will receive credit for anything you purchase in that session. You can also right-click the Amazon logo to the right and save it as a bookmark or favorite. It helps NSS and doesn’t cost you a penny more!

NSS REVIEW: Non-Fiction Book of the Month (OCT) More Non-Fiction Books Title: Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir Author: Bryan Burrough Date: 1998		NSS REVIEW: Fiction Book of the Month (OCT) More Fiction Books Title: Hurricane Moon Author: Alexis Glynn Latner Date: July, 2007		NSS REVIEW: Children’s Book of the Month (OCT) More Children’s Books Title: Spacer and Rat Author: Margaret Bechard Date: 2005
The gripping story of seven American astronauts and their missions to the dangerously decaying Mir space station.		The hopes and dreams of humanity ride with ten thousand colonists frozen in a ship sent to settle an extra-solar planet.		Engaging story of two young people on a space colony in the asteroid belt; impressive job of creating a complete fictional world.
Read our review by Stephen Adamczyk		Read our review by Marianne Dyson		Read our review by Marianne Dyson

Books are selected for recommendation based on their connection to the NSS vision of people living and working in space. Reviews are provided by members of the NSS Space Books Committee and other individuals. Opinions expressed are those of the reviewers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Space Society. Contact Space Books Committee Chairman Marianne Dyson with comments or requests for book reviews. Note: NSS does not review self- or pod-published books.

Space Tourism

“The sheer beauty of it just brought tears to my eyes. If people can see Earth from up here, see it without those borders, see it without any differences in race or religion, they would have a completely different perspective. Because when you see it from that angle, you cannot think of your home or your country. All you can see is one Earth….” — Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-American space tourist who flew to the International Space Station in September 2006.

“It was amazing.  The zero-g part was wonderful.  I could have gone on and on – space here I come.”      — Stephen Hawking, renowned British astrophysicist who was able to leave his wheel chair and experience zero-gravity aboard a parabolic airplane flight on April 26, 2007. Hawking plans to fly on SpaceShipTwo when it offers suborbital space flights.

 

Space Tourism Leads to Space Settlement
NSS Position Paper on Space Tourism

LINKS & RESOURCES

Space Adventures
X-Prize Foundation
Space Access Society
Scaled Composites
Virgin Galactic
Zero-G Corporation

Anousheh Ansari – First Female Private Space Explorer
Space Future – Space Tourism
Wikipedia – Space Tourism
Space Tourism Society
Space Tourism – Multimedia Special Report (13 minutes)
NSS News Archive on Space Tourism
Review: The Space Tourist’s Handbook