Funding Space Exploration

You may have missed it going into the Memorial Day weekend, but the space shuttle Atlantis completed what was probably her last flight. There are only 2 shuttle flights left until the shuttle program is retired this year.  Then we'll be dependent on Russia to get to the international space station (ISS) until commercial technology can get us there, potentially like this successful launch a few days ago of Space-X's Falcon 9 rocket. 

Obama's initial NASA budget called for canceling the Constellation program, and a focus on funding commercial space technologies.  Constellation was envisioned by Bush to do multiple things: be a replacement for the shuttle, enable us to get back to the moon to set up a permanent station there, and use it as a springboard to eventually get us to Mars.  

After much criticism from Congress, Obama decided to put an asteroid mission as well as Mars back on the table, and kept the Orion capsule from Constellation as a rescue pod for the ISS.  Many are still skeptical of his plan though, particularly former high profile astronauts like Neil Armstrong.  I'm no expert in space exploration and the experts are going back and forth on this, so I'll limit this to a few observations.  I question the wisdom of putting our manned space program into Russian hands, even if it's only temporarily.  No matter how NASA wants to sugar coat it, we're ceding our capabilities of human space flight to Russia in the interim.  While I like the idea of developing commercial space technologies to spark innovation, if the goal for NASA is to focus on solar system exploration with eventual missions to an asteroid and then Mars, there doesn't seem much of blue print on how to achieve those goals.  Without a plan, those stated goals seem designed as political assurances that some day, we'll get there.  So while Congress wrangles with the administration over the space program and potential job losses in their home states, I'll just share a few photos and one inspirational video.

Image of the solar transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Atlantis 50 minutes before docking, taken from the area of Madrid (Spain) on May 16th 2010 at 13h 28min 55s UT. Atlantis has just begun the "R-bar pitch maneuver": the shuttle performs a backflip that exposes its heat-shield to the crew of the ISS that makes photographs of it; since its approach trajectory is between the ISS and the Earth, this means that we are seeing Atlantis essentially from above, with the payload bay door opened. Photographed by Thierry Legault  (H/T: David Thompson).

Liftoff of the inaugural SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle carrying a Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. Launch occurred on Friday 4 June, 2010 at 2:45 Eastern / 18:45 UTC from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Photo Credit: Chris Thompson / SpaceX.


 

TED: Physicist Brian Cox on Why We Need Explorers