NASA's Weak Dream

NASA is again snatching headlines
with the news of Charles Bolden's nomination as NASA's new Administrator and the
Atlantis Shuttle crew's final upgrade of the Hubble telescope.  There will be numerous TV documentaries as we
celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of man's first Moon Landing this July
20. Yet the news for NASA now is a pale comparison to 1969, when two Americans
first stepped on the moon.

Forty years later, we have to ask,
what happened to the dream of a man and woman on Mars and Venus?  By now we thought we'd even be on the outer
reach of the solar system, to Pluto.  Yet
as assuredly as Pluto has since become a non-planet, after a few repeat Moon
missions through 1972, we just stopped leaving earth.

In August 1969, two weeks after the
historic moon walk, Rocket scientist and NASA Marshall Space Flight Director, Wernher
Von Braun, presented a comprehensive plan for human travel to Mars.  He wrote a detailed book on the mission's
potential years earlier, in 1951 and 52. 
His plan was never adopted. 

At this point, we'll take returning
to the moon.  Or are we (rightfully) just too
embarrassed to repeat that?  Hubble
is nice, even spectacular.  The photos
are amazing, but not in the same breath as the earth-shattering significance of man
on other planets. Even the pilot of Apollo 11 and second man on the moon, Buzz
Aldrin, agrees. He said recently, "Instead of a stepping stone to Mars, NASA's
current lunar plan is a detour."

The Russians, in partnership with
the European Space Agency, have a plan. 
At the end of March, they launched Mars 500, a simulation of the effects
of Mars' atmosphere on humans.  Shades of
1957.  Then, with their bold move, as they placed Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin
in orbit, the Russians jumped a light-year ahead of the USA in the space race.  It took us a decade to catch up. Hopefully we
won't have to repeat this – still a sore point.  We need a get-there mentality with a time frame.

President Barack Obama recently
told the Space shuttle Atlantis astronauts, "It is a high priority of mine to
restore that sense of wonder that space can provide."  Returning to the moon is no longer wonder; we
already did that, the wonder is gone. 

Most of us are not scientists, but
that's the point.  NASA executes the
dream for all of us, the outreach to the beyond we know is there. 

         When our supply of everything from
oil to food to water is in peril, shouldn't we be exploring the virtually
limitless bounds of other planets?  As we
seek cures to illnesses from new earthly frontiers like stem cells, are there
are elements and compounds on other planets that might be useful beyond our
wildest dreams?  Do we not want to live
beyond the usual 80-years-old-and-out formula? 
Shouldn't we see what's out there?

Many argue that a mission to Mars
would cost beyond NASA's annual budget of 18.7 billion dollars.  NASA estimates the cost of a manned trip to
Mars to be at 100 billion dollars; yet Apollo 11 cost 150 billion dollars.  There were individuals in 1969 who protested
against its funding.  What would have
happened if we didn't have the right stuff and backed off? By the way, we spend
150 billion dollars a year (a trillion so far) in Iraq only to finally have the
realization that Al Qaeda is concentrated in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

Claiming that close-in shuttle
missions and robots sent afar are all we can do, when we saw that's nonsense with
our own eyes (and if someone is too young, look at the videotape) is no longer
acceptable.  Man on the Moon was the most
profound scientific achievement of our lifetimes because of all it symbolized
in the conquering of human knowledge gaps -- and it happened too long ago.

         It's time for "change" to reverse NASA
satisfaction with the mundane, and replace it with the other-worldly – so that
potentially all mankind can benefit.

Robert Weiner is a
former spokesman for the Clinton White House and the House Government
Operations Committee. Zoe Pagonis is a policy analyst at Robert Weiner
Associates.

Link to original: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpedp-weiner-nasa-venus-070609070609jul06,0,2254530.story