Lunar News Network

McCain's Position on Space Exploration

I'm continuing my research on candidates and their positions on space exploration and I've uncovered the following on Senator John McCain's position (Space Ref - John McCain On the Issues: America's Space Program):

John McCain has been a strong supporter of NASA and the space program. He is proud to have sponsored legislation authorizing funding consistent with the President's vision for the space program, which includes a return of astronauts to the Moon in preparation for a manned mission to Mars. He believes support for a continued US presence in space is of major importance to America's future innovation and security. He has also been a staunch advocate for ensuring that NASA funding is accompanied by proper management and oversight to ensure that the taxpayers receive the maximum return on their investment. John McCain believes curiosity and a drive to explore have always been quintessential American traits. This has been most evident in the space program, for which he will continue his strong support.

Apollo I

The New York Times On This Day section reminds us that it was on this date in 1967 that  Astronauts Virgil I. ''Gus'' Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft at Cape Kennedy, Fla.

Orbit vs. Ocean

Over at Tech_Space, Angela Gunn has some Deep thoughts on exploration and suggests that instead of looking up for exploration targets, we should look down to the watery depths. Angela, luv ya, but I'm not persuaded.

Political Action for Space

I'd like to welcome Political Action for Space to the blogroll. I'm impressed with the efforts of this blogger to cover the intersection of presidential electioneering and space exploration issues. The blog offers helpful links to allow you to quickly contact your favorite candidates, as well as links to current legislation of interest to the space exploration community. It's one-stop-shopping for the politically minded space advocate. In the latest post, he notes that Barack Obama has repeated his plans to cut NASA funding. Well, that's one way to lose my vote.

NASA Responds to Alternative Vision

LiveScience gets a NASA reply to those "forget the Moon, land on an asteroid" plans (NASA’s Chief Reacts to Human Asteroid Mission):

“Those who are organizing this conference have long favored choices other than those put forth in the Vision for Space Exploration and subsequently authorized by the Congress. Their rejection of the Moon as an important destination for mankind, their emphasis on the early use of the Lagrange Points in a new space architecture, and their advocacy for early missions to the near-Earth asteroids (NEO) and to Mars are well known and long standing. These views were summarized in a report issued by the International Academy of Astronautics in July 2004. Their opposition to the International Space Station continues unremitting. One struggles to understand how the future international and commercial partnerships they advocate will come to pass if existing treaty-level commitments are not kept,” Griffin said.

This is an excellent article that fully rebuts the "alternative vision" that seeks to derail plans to return to the Moon and then go on to Mars.

Diminished Vision

Here is some very disturbing news that makes the upcoming presidential election all the more critical for supporters of the plan to return to the Moon (Spaceflight Now - Moon Stuck):

Some of the most influential leaders of the space community are quietly working to offer the next U.S. president an alternative to President Bush's "vision for space exploration" -- one that would delete a lunar base and move instead toward manned missions to asteroids along with a renewed emphasis on Earth environmental spacecraft.

Top U.S. planetary scientists, several astronauts and former NASA division directors will meet privately at Stanford University on Feb. 12-13 to define these sweeping changes to the NASA/Bush administration Vision for Space Exploration (VSE).

Abandoning the Bush lunar base concept in favor of manned asteroid landings could also lead to much earlier manned flights to Mars orbit, where astronauts could land on the moons Phobos or Deimos.

What can those of us who support the Vision do? I suggest the following steps:

1. Contact your Congressional representative and voice your support for the lunar program and the NASA budget.
2. Contact the campaign headquarters for your favorite presidential candidate and ask them what their position is on manned space exploration in general and the lunar program in particular. Feel free to report back here the results of your efforts.
3. Use your blogs to continue to express support for the lunar program.

This presidential election could dramatically change the course of American space exploration, let's make sure that voters who care about this issue have the information they need to cast an informed vote.

Shake Me to the Moon

It looks like NASA is facing a very serious engineering problem (The Associated Press  - NASA Moon Rocket May Shake Too Much) with some important hardware:

Engineers are concerned that the new rocket meant to replace the space shuttle and send astronauts on their way to the moon could shake violently during the first few minutes of flight, possibly destroying the entire vehicle.

If not corrected, the shaking would arise from the powerful first stage of the Ares I rocket, which will lift the Orion crew capsule into orbit.

NASA officials hope to have a plan for fixing the design as early as March, and they do not expect it to delay the goal of returning astronauts to the moon by 2020.

I'm a bit surprised by this, as I'd been under the impression that the reason they opted for rocket launches and going back the the Apollo-era designs was that this was tried and true technology that could be easily updated. I hope they can quickly solve this problem.

Defending Space Exploration

Over at the Freakonomics Blog, Steven J. Dubner asks group of space authorities: Is space exploration worth the cost? G. Scott Hubbard, Joan Vernikos, Kathleen M. Connell, Keith Cowing, and David M. Livingston, and John M. Logsdon contribute their views on the value of space exploration.

Narrowing the Gap

Here is a news report about the NASA budget, it also addresses the gap issue as well as growing international competition (Houston Chronicle - Refueling NASA):

Despite Congress' rejection of a billion-dollar funding increase for NASA next year, Texas lawmakers haven't given up the fight to increase the agency's budget. In a tour of the development lab for the Orion crew exploration vehicle at the Johnson Space Center, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, a Democrat, called for an additional $2 billion to speed up construction of the Orion and the Ares rocket system to launch it into space.

The NASA budget approved by Congress is just over $17.3 billion. The added funding is needed to shorten a dangerous 5-year gap between the decommissioning of the three aging space shuttles in 2010 and the first scheduled flight of Orion in 2015. During that time, the United States would have to pay Russia to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station using disposable Soyuz space capsules.

In laying out an ambitious plan to return Americans to the moon and then voyage to Mars, the Bush administration ignores the risk of leaving the manned space program grounded at a time when China is gearing up for its own efforts to go to the moon.

Surveyor 7

The New York Times' On This Day section reminds us that it was on this day in 1968 that the Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.