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Environment

Space Exploration Plan Under Fire

Congress continues to question NASA's new plan for human space exploration

by David Pittman
May 31, 2010 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 88, Issue 22

NOVEL RESEARCH
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Credit: NASA
Astronaut Dan Tani works inside the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA
Astronaut Dan Tani works inside the International Space Station.

During a recent Senate hearing concerning the future of human space flight, National Aeronautics & Space Administration Chief Charles F. Bolden Jr. recalled a heated November 1962 conversation between President John F. Kennedy and then-NASA administrator James E. Webb.

Kennedy, who receives much of the credit for helping land the first man on the moon, asked Webb whether NASA’s top priority was a lunar landing.

“Administrator Webb said ‘No,’ ” Bolden recalled during his testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee in a May 12 hearing. “It’s science. It’s technology development.”

The debate from nearly 50 years ago holds relevance today as President Barack Obama proposes moving the agency away from a destination-driven focus to one of developing technology that will enable deeper space travel. The recent Senate hearing looked at not only concerns about the future of space exploration, but also the impact of this new direction on scientific research at the agency.

At issue is the President’s plan to terminate the George W. Bush-era Constellation program, which involved spacecraft development and targeted a return to the lunar surface before deeper missions to Mars. In its place would be a new program that focuses on technology development and relies on commercial providers for spacecraft development and space transportation.

The hope is that the new plan will make human space exploration more affordable while enabling research on next-generation technologies. Obama’s goals include landing on an asteroid by 2025 and orbiting Mars by the mid-2030s. The President first rolled out his pitch as part of his fiscal 2011 budget proposal in February.

Congress had already expressed concerns about this new plan (C&EN, March 15, page 42), but the senators at the May 12 hearing made a clear point that whatever happens on the human exploration front, they want to see NASA continue to focus on research in science and technology.

“I do not want anyone to forget the agency’s broader priorities, including exploration but also science, aeronautics, education, and technology,” said Sen. Jay D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Other committee members went further, pointing out that Obama’s plan will have a direct impact on scientific research at NASA. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), the ranking member of the committee, noted that the President’s plan would prevent the U.S. from entering low-Earth orbit on its own for a number of years because the space shuttle fleet is set to be retired next year and commercial replacements have yet to be developed. This would effectively halt scientific projects that are already under way or waiting to be done on the International Space Station (ISS), she added.

“We should utilize space for science and research that cannot be done as well in the gravity conditions of Earth,” Hutchison said. She named National Institutes of Health-funded projects such as determining the causes of and treating cancer, developing new biomedical imaging, and reducing the burden of arthritis as examples of activities that she saw in jeopardy.

Bolden assured Hutchison and others by saying he believed that the Russian government and U.S. commercial companies could more than adequately provide transport to the space station. NASA has secured seats on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to shuttle astronauts to and from ISS after the shuttle is retired. This will be the U.S.’s only mode of transportation to the space station until commercial vehicles are ready.

“I’m confident that the American industry is better than the Russian,” Bolden said. “And I’m happy with the Russian industry.”

When asked about NASA’s priorities, John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, said research is and will remain as important to NASA’s mission as space exploration.

“We need to do more fundamental science using the capabilities of NASA,” Holdren told the senators. “We need to use the capabilities of NASA to do more advanced technology, much of which will spin off into immensely valuable economic contributions across our society.”

NASA’s Bolden echoed Holdren’s position that research will remain an important part of the agency’s activities. In addition to the spin-off potential, Bolden said, ISS represents key research possibilities for deeper space exploration by humans.

But, Bolden added, ISS also plays a less tangible role that is perhaps more important. In “inspiring the next generation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” he told senators, “the ISS is without equal.”

Hearings in both the Senate and the House of Representatives are expected to continue throughout the year until Congress and the Administration agree on NASA’s path forward.

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