Examining the Vision for Space Exploration: Workshop Findings and Roadmap Analysis
- Paper number
IAC-08.B3.1.6
- Author
Prof. Scott Hubbard, Stanford University, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) was announced by President Bush on January 14, 2004. The original description of the VSE, called a “Renewed Spirit of Discovery”, was rich in both human and robotic exploration goals. Understanding the potential for life on Mars or Europa was emphasized along with replacing the Shuttle and carrying out the necessary preparations in order to send humans to explore the Red Planet. In the four years hence, the implementation of the VSE has been focused on a much narrower set of goals: finishing the International Space Station for NASA’s partners, developing a new US human spaceflight capability called Constellation to replace the Shuttle (to be retired in 2010) and making plans for a permanent human presence on the Moon beginning in 2020. Within NASA’s nearly flat budget the last 4 years, the cost of these few objectives has resulted in major realignments of priorities: among them the loss of basic life science research, steep reduction in technology investment, a 3 B cut to planned science programs, and a drastic reduction in plans for Mars exploration. Given the history of cost growth in major NASA programs, some observers began to conclude that even NASA’ s reduced VSE could not be achieved with the schedule and budget available. To address these concerns and to take stock of the VSE, a workshop jointly sponsored by Stanford University and The Planetary Society was held Feb 12−13, 2008. Almost 50 space experts drawn from industry, the science community, astronaut corps and space policy debated and discussed the VSE through a series of 8 plenary panels. A consensus was reached on 4 statements: • It is time to go beyond LEO with people as explorers. The purpose of sustained human exploration is to go to Mars and beyond. The significance of the Moon and other intermediate destinations is to serve as steppingstones on the path to that goal. • Human space exploration is undertaken to serve national and international interests. It provides important opportunities to advance science, but science is not the primary motivation. • Sustained human exploration requires enhanced international collaboration and offers the United States an opportunity for global leadership. • NASA has not received the budget increases to support the mandated human exploration program as well as other vital parts of the NASA portfolio, including space science, aeronautics, technology requirements, and especially Earth observations, given the urgency of global climate change. This paper will describe the workshop findings in much greater detail and will present additional analysis of a roadmap that supports the workshop consensus.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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