I had promised to do a review of Obama's proposed space policy. While it did get started, I never quite had the time to completely review ALL 6 PAGES.
However, details coming in so far seem to imply that things may be changing, and that Obama will be charting a new course, and I am getting more hopeful. Yes, its early days, but the signs are good that he will be basing his actual policy around his proposed policy.
As I discussed in my earlier Obama Space Diary, the NASA transition team is hard at work. On Wednesday, Spaceref posted the following story about transition questions being asked at NASA - nothing was overly surprising, although I found Mike Griffin's request interesting
That said, PA&E did need a little assistance in focusing this effort agency-wide: in that same meeting (according to official notes) Griffin "reminded members that the Agency will have only one transition book, and does not want mission directorates and centers to be working on individual transition documents. He requested that members manage this proactively, and stop independent efforts. He committed to share the transition book with members and to seek their contributions. He requested that everyone remain a NASA team in the next 6 months, and that PA&E provide a status on their activities next month."
If this is standard practice during a transition time, then so be it. If it's not, well, it wouldn't surprise me that this is coming from Griffin.
However, a much more interesting story emerged Friday, from Space.com
OBAMA TEAM SEEKS DATA ON POSSIBLE CHANGES TO ARES, ORION
Obama pledged during his campaign to inject an additional $2 billion into NASA aimed in part at narrowing the gap between the space shuttle's retirement and the introduction of a successor system. While NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and his senior managers are adamant that Ares and Orion are the right vehicles to fill that role, Obama did not endorse either system by name during his campaign.
If that omission was enough to raise doubts about the incoming administration's commitment to a rocket some believe will prove much tougher to field than NASA is ready to admit, the five-page list of questions Obama's NASA transition team sent to the agency Nov. 24 probably will not make Ares supporters feel any better.
There are a number of possible scenarios outlined by the questions
- Cancel Ares 1, cancel Orion, cancel Ares V
- Cancel Ares 1, keep Orion and Ares V
- Accelerate Ares 1 and Orion
- Decrease the size of Orion, and launch it on a Delta IV or Atlas V
- Launch Orion on Ariane 5 (European rocket) or on H2A (Japanese Rocket)
Additionally, a number of programs were not asked to consider the implications of canceling the programs. These include
- James Webb Space Telescope
- Mars Science Lab
- COTS (YAH!!!)
Its worth noting that the transition team wants info from NASA about accelerating COTS, and also about using COTS to transport the crew to the space station.
The only programs actually mentioned explicitly in the questionnaire that specifically refer to possibly being canceled was the current Orion Architecture, with Ares I the most commonly sighted change.
One proposal not explicitly mentioned - Direct 2.0. I don't know how Direct proponents will view this.
That said, this is still early days. John Logsdon, a recognized space policy expert, cautioned about reading to much into the questions being asked.
"After all, these are the questions that everyone is asking, and the transition team certainly must get NASA's best answers to them," Logsdon said, adding that the questionnaire "is unlikely to reflect the totality" of the transition team's investigation of current programs and alternatives.
Mr. X over at Chair Force Engineer, offered up his thoughts. I may do the same in the coming days.
Various other projects are also being investigated. These include
- Deployment of the complete 15 Earth Science missions being recommended by the National Research Council
- Deployment of the
Deep Space Climate Observatory (IE formally Triana)
- Catalog of Earth threatening asteroids and comets.
- Harness Space Based Solar Power for Earth use. (YES!!!!!)
As I said, this is still early days, but I am optimistic. Keith Cowing, along with a few other people I know, are not expecting Griffin to be around too long, which in itself is good news. One thing not made clear in the article, but I hope is being done, is engagement with the larger space activist community. But given the transition team's history, I am hopeful.