While the United States and other nations grapple with the current downturn in the global economy and we hover on the brink of perhaps a major depression, the space technology industry seems to be weathering the tough economic times fairly well. Space development remains relatively strong or stable in most nations like India, China, Japan, the European Union (yes I know the EU is not strictly a nation), Russia, and the United States. Also, a large number of developing nations are working to create viable space programs of their own. Just a brief look at the array of space related articles that appear in traditional media and more specialized publications attests to this trend. President-elect Obama would do well to pay attention this particular industry and work to strengthen the United States own space programs which could serve as a groundswell for new high-paid technical jobs for Americans.
Space remains one of the best frontiers to pursue for industrialized nations who are losing their competitive edge in the manufacturing and service sectors. Unfortunately, America's space programs have stagnated over the last 3 decades as Congressional budget investments in NASA declined or remained flat. However, the United States is still supreme in a number of areas of space research and development. The potential still exists for the U.S. to turn its space program into its premier flagship industry and leading the rest of the world in space development. The space shuttle program, an abysmal failure, certainly played a large role in the problems plaguing NASA increasingly consuming more and more of its limited budget while space science and research programs were scaled back or axed all together. The space shuttle fleet is finally being retired in 2010, but this is really not soon enough. While President Bush has reshaped some of NASA's agenda with the Constellation program focusing on returning humans to the moon and sending humans to Mars, the new space initiative ignores the major premise for which the space shuttle program had been develop: to decrease the cost of space access. Here are some critical areas that President Obama will need to address if the United States wants to become a true spacefaring nation:
Space Launch Infrastructure
Imagine what life would be like without the Interstate Highway system in the United States. Washington, D.C. and other major urban areas would be gridlocked. Freight costs would be high. People driving home for Thanksgiving would take the better part of a day to just travel 200 to 300 miles. The lack of a space launch infrastructure is the major factor holding back the commercialization of space. Some states like New Mexico and Oklahoma have taken the initiative to creating their on space ports, but do not have the major funding to develop the type of infrastructure these spaceports need. Currently, there exist only 3 viable spaceports in the United States. One, at Vandenburg, is strictly controlled by the military which does not allow private development for nonmilitary space flights. The Kennedy Space Center is controlled jointly by NASA and the Air Force and only the big boys like Lockheed Martin and Boeing can afford to launch rockets and spacecraft at these facilities. Then there is a small spaceport up in Alaska, which is where some of the private launches are conducted, but its latitude and short season, does not lend much to ongoing development. President Obama would do well to launch a national effort at building more spaceports which should also focus on the kinds of spaceports that need to be developed. For instance, launch infrastructure that utilizes electromagnetic propulsion has been researched for over the last decade, but its development has lagged due to the lack of strong funding.
Space Technology Research and Development
Space R&D has been the backbone of a number of successful technologies that have been converted to mass commercial use. Everything from microwaves and cell phones to computers had part of its technology developed through government funding. Another major factor hampering NASA has been the continued use of technologies dating from the 1960's and 1970's. Part of the blame for this of course is again the space shuttle program. The shuttle platform and its complex, numerous systems makes updating with new technology extremely difficult and very expensive. For instance, several companies has been able to develop a carbon composite lightweight fuel tanks for both oxygen and hydrogen fuel which were originally suppose to be part of the Venture Star spacecraft, but NASA is not able to incorporate these tanks into the space shuttle design which could have reduced overall weight significantly. However, these companies have been able to incorporate the tanks into newer rocket designs. Increasing funding for space technology research and development would definitely have multiple benefits in terms of jobs, new varieties of technology products with commercial applications, and strong revenue streams. Equally important is funding research and development that lead to viable technologies. This may mean President Obama will need to set up a separate commission independent of NASA to award space R&D grants. Currently, NASA tends to award much of the R&D funding to the big corporations on worthless projects that end up in the dustbins. When they do award grants to smaller companies, NASA often co-ops them or shut their programs down even though the companies were successfully developing their technology.
Space Science
By far the most successful area of NASA and the most underappreciated branch as well. When you see pictures of Mars, look at photos of the Jovian moons, or watch the local weatherman point at a satellite image of cloudcover over you region, this is space science in action. One of space science greatest contributions to date is the monitoring of earth's climate and the trend to global warming. There has been considerable controversy recently over the White House attempts to muzzle James Hansen about his global warming research. Space science also monitors the development of agriculture and urban areas over time and their impact on the region. Astronomy is also a major focus of Space Science. Planet hunting has become one of the bigtime pursuits of NASA and university astronomers. Space science itself has suffered budget cuts and decline during the Bush administration as NASA has raided the space science funding to fund the space shuttle and International Space Station. Besides urging greater funding for space science programs, President Obama might consider making Space Science a separate autonomous division within or without NASA to protect its budget and programs.
Overall, returning to the Moon and sending humans to Mars are worthwhile goals and President Obama should continue to strongly support them. However, these missions should not come at the expense of other space developments. Currently, NASA's budget is less than 1% of the Federal Budget. The federal government spends almost 10 times that on social programs and 38 times that on defense programs. If President Obama quadrupled NASA's funding, it still would only amount to 2.2% of the federal budget and yet tremendously accelerate the commercial development of space focusing on the 3 areas listed above.