Getting Space Exploration Right
To all you who don't recognize the title to this post, it is from Robert Zubrin's article of the same name. It was published in spring of 2005 as an answer to Bush's Vision for Space Exploration. The Mars Society links to the article on their website. While alot of the aerospace community, space scientists, enthusists, and general "space geeks" support Bush's plan, there are few who actually understand what it entails and what it means, in its present form, for the future of space exploration. Robert Zubrin is one of those few. He is famous for his Mars Direct proposal, and has certainly proven himself qualified discuss such matters.
This well written, informative article by Zubrin challenges everything about the Plan, questions thouroughly the goals of the space program, and presents a very logical technical approach neccessary for the successful implementation of the Moon-Mars objective. I highly recommend you read it, as I have a feeling I will be refering to it frequently in my entries.
The Article is not meant to dispell the Bush plan as crazy or unattainable. Rather, it is more focused on how to make Bush's ultimate goal (sustained presence in space, on the moon, and on Mars) a reality. What this entails boils down to mainly timetable changes. Where Apollo put a man on the moon in 8 years, Bush proposes 16. This, Zubrin says, is unacceptable technically, politically, and fiscally. This, of course, is not the only thing wrong with the plan, but Bob Zubrin goes into much more detail than I care to get into right now, so I encourage everyone to read the article first. I will post more analysis later.
Coming across this article has made me change my approach to how I wish to present my personal Vision. Progress is being made, and I will post some preliminary ramblings soon. I have noticed however, after reading further details on the Mars Direct proposal, that I am more intregued with the science and technical aspects of getting to and living on Mars than the political aspects. This blog was intended to outline my ideas of what space exploration needs not in terms of technology but in terms of politics, so I will try to maintain this goal through the rest of my posts.
This well written, informative article by Zubrin challenges everything about the Plan, questions thouroughly the goals of the space program, and presents a very logical technical approach neccessary for the successful implementation of the Moon-Mars objective. I highly recommend you read it, as I have a feeling I will be refering to it frequently in my entries.
The Article is not meant to dispell the Bush plan as crazy or unattainable. Rather, it is more focused on how to make Bush's ultimate goal (sustained presence in space, on the moon, and on Mars) a reality. What this entails boils down to mainly timetable changes. Where Apollo put a man on the moon in 8 years, Bush proposes 16. This, Zubrin says, is unacceptable technically, politically, and fiscally. This, of course, is not the only thing wrong with the plan, but Bob Zubrin goes into much more detail than I care to get into right now, so I encourage everyone to read the article first. I will post more analysis later.
Coming across this article has made me change my approach to how I wish to present my personal Vision. Progress is being made, and I will post some preliminary ramblings soon. I have noticed however, after reading further details on the Mars Direct proposal, that I am more intregued with the science and technical aspects of getting to and living on Mars than the political aspects. This blog was intended to outline my ideas of what space exploration needs not in terms of technology but in terms of politics, so I will try to maintain this goal through the rest of my posts.
posted by Dan at 2:14 PM
1 Comments:
The politics are so nasty, I can see why you'd be more interested in the technical aspects of a Mars mission. Although to discuss one technical aspect, I do not believe even with a heavy lift capability it is a good idea to go to Mars with a single launch. If you get to Mars and your fuel manufacturing capability doesn't work because of a 95 cent washer, there's no hardware store you can stop by to pick one up.
On the political side, I agree with Zubrin regarding the need to NOT drag this out for decades. Hell, with the technology we have today, we should be ready to go in 5 years. Given the fact that we seem to be mired in stupid lately, 8 years would be ok as we seek to transition back to something that makes even a little bit of sense.
The thing I hope you look at if you're going to consider the political aspect of space, though, is, "how did we get here?" Things happen for a reason, and there is a reason why it takes us so long to build hardware today.
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