I am going to pick on Darksyde a little this morning today. Something he said in his front page post rankled me. And do not get me wrong DarkSyde's Saturday morning posts are terrific, but he exhibited something of the defeatist mentality that I have often witnessed concerning human space exploration.
Much closer to home but still pretty far away, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is now in businesses taking moonshots with its bad ass moon cameras of places I'm beginning to think we'll never visit in person in my lifetime.
The boldface is my emphasis. While Darksyde is right about the lunar images from LRO being badass, the negativity of that last part of the comment in reference to humans returning to the Moon strikes a cold, hard nerve in me. For one thing, humans have visited the surface of the Moon in his lifetime if his bio on Dkos is correct. But, I wonder if his reaction is due in part to the Congressional and Senate hearings this week in which Norman Augustine, Admiral Joe Dyer, and Dr. Michael Griffin testified about the summary report on human spaceflight.
If you want to see what has been going on with US human spaceflight future click on the first two links in the Top Ten below. Many pundits and critics have chosen to see dark clouds over the horizon concerning NASA and human spaceflight. Especially some conservatives who continue to claim the President Obama is planning to end US spaceflight program, a blatantly false assumption.
However, I find the summary report fairly encouraging. For one, the panel acknowledges what I and others have argued for a long time, that funding for NASA has been shortchanged and made pursuing spaceflight ambitions outside of LEO almost impossible. At the height of Apollo program in the 1960's, NASA's budget comprised 4% of the federal budget. Today, NASA's budget has shrunk to just 0.5% of federal budget. So the idea that the US is going to establish a spacefaring society on such meager funding is ludricous. And that is essentially what the Augustine panel has said.
The reaction of Congress? They agreed. Not just one side. Both sides. Bipartisanship. Even more relevant, is that the states most impacted by NASA programs are Florida, Texas, California, Alabama, Louisiana, Utah, and Ohio. There are more states of course, but the states mentioned above combined make up almost half of the Congressional delegation. California, Florida, and Ohio have been crucial to President Obama's election last November and will likely play a similar role in the next Presidential elections.
The Augustine panel provided two sets of choices on NASA's future. The first set with no increase in NASA's budget would leave the US stuck in LEO. The second set of options depend on a budget increase and all the options including the variations would eventually lead to a return to the Moon. Norman Augustine has testified that all three options under this second set are viable and executable given a budget increase of $3 billion which would only raise NASA's budget to 0.6% of federal budget and make a world of difference in human spaceflight. The response by Congressional members to testimony given by several witnesses have been supportive of increasing NASA's funding and focused on the second set of options. Even better, a number of polls taken recently shows that the American public would like to see the US move beyond LEO. So there is reason for optimism and the strong possibility that we humans will be stepping on the Moon again within our lifetime.
Nella's Top Ten Space Stories
- Funding Will Be Key Determinant of America’s Human Space Flight Future, Committee and Witnesses Agree US House of Representatives The summary report from the Review of Human Spaceflight Committee was a bit confusing as is fairly obvious by the reactions of politicians on Capitol Hill and the media.
- Norman Augustine Testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space US Senate Here is live video testimony from Norman Augustine, chair of the panel that reviewed US human spaceflight ambitions, testifying before US Senate subcommittee.
- Sun Surprisingly Active During Low Point in Cycle Space.com The Sun may not have active sunspots but apparently that does not stop it from emitting strong solar winds packed with energy Earthward.
- Taming the fire: the Ares 1 first stage development test The Space Review Here is a biophysicist view of the Ares I first stage test. What is startling is that some 10,000 people came to watch the event. Maybe there is a lot of interest in space afterall.
- Doomed Space Missions: A Rich History of Planned Destruction Space.com Darksyde mentioned the LRO LCROSS mission in his This Week In Science post this morning but here are some of the other spacecrafts that impacted the Moon and other planets.
- Team Armadillo Succeeds in Mock Moon Landing Challenge Space.com Armadillo is only the first of several companies who are competing for this prize. Masten also competed but had to abort their Xombie lander tests after a fuel leak was discovered.
- Astronaut says U.S. needs to legalize illegal immigrants Orlando Sentinel Here is an US astronaut willing to stand up for immigrant rights. Who says these people don't have balls and a conscience?
- NASA Identifies Fix for Ares 1 Vibration Issue Space News Yes, despite all the naysayers, guess what? There is a fix for those vibration problems, but the results of the 5 segment SRM indicates that the oscillations may not be as bad as predicted.
- Shell-Shocked Nation to Bury Assaf Ramon Next to his Father Israel National News Illan Ramon was a astronaut on the Columbia space shuttle when it plunged to its fiery end. Sadly his son was just killed while flying a training mission in an F-14.
- Rocky exo-world breaks new records Astronomy Now If you did not catch DarkSyde link about this newfound exoplanet resembling Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars in composition, here it is again.
Astronomy Corner
Stellar Mystery Solved, Einstein Safe Sky & Telescope Whew! Einstein general relativity theory is still standing. That was close!
Weird Space
Aliens in the News Astrobiology Magazine Interesting look at the relationship of exterrestrial mythology in popular culture and how it translates into the search for exterrestrial life.
Sex in space could be the key to the survival of humans Japan Times I thought about putting this in the Top Ten, but the article is just too weird.
Space Photo of the Week
The static test of the Ares 1 first stage SRM at Promontory, Utah. Courtesy of ATK.
Note: Don't forget to check out Neon Vincent Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday.