The Race for Deep Space? Or The End of an Era...?
April 16th of this year President Obama came up with new plans for Nasa and space exploration in general. I head about this through a friend of a friend and decided that I needed to investigate further.
So, he's canned the Constellation Program, which would have sent us back to the moon; stating, "We have been there before"...
True. We have been there before, but there is a certain pull to our neighbor that makes humans on this planet feel a connection with it; myself included. I feel sort of abandoned... as did all of the other people who absolutely hated this decision, among them former astronauts, politicians, the aerospace industry and the nation's legions of space cadets. Not to mention that this will end all human space flights after this year which have Florida and Texas up in arms, considering they are based in human space flights. I wouldn't blame them. The President stated that he gained their votes he would secure jobs. Kennedy Space center alone will be losing 9,000 jobs because of this new space plan.
In the new plan, the President did state that this new plan will create more jobs than even the Constellation program; and is in the works for a $3-billion dollar program to produce a heavy lift rocket that will take us into deep space. Who's going to be making this heavy lift rocket? SpaceX of California. So, who will be benefiting? "California could benefit because of its entrenched aerospace industry" - there is little to no mention of the space centers in Florida and Texas with this new plan. So, this is thousands of jobs lost in the south and thousands more created... for California?
In addition to ending all human space flights by the end of the year, NASA has launched their Face in Space program. Simply stated - they'll allow you to send your picture or just your name into space on either of the two remaining shuttle flights; The Discovery in September or The Endeavour in November. And after your shuttle returns to Earth you can print out your very own hokey flight certificate.
It seems rather like a slap in the face, but I can't help feeling this new deep space plan could go either way. Tamper so severely with everything NASA has worked towards and everything could end... or we really could be the real Star Trek. So, my name is booked on the Discovery and I will be printing out my very own hokey certificate... just in case in 20 years the little kids have no idea what the hell NASA was about.
And how does he propose American personnel to get to and from the International Space Station, considering there will no longer be manned flights? The Russians, of course. "Once the shuttle programme ends, the United States will rely on Russia's Soyuz rockets to carry its astronauts to the space station until a commercial US launcher can be developed. That is scheduled for 2015." I surely hope they gladly accepted to the terms and didn't have them shoved on them, because that would simply be rude.
It doesn't *seem* as bleak as all that. I, for one, absolutely agree that some new form of rocket technology is in order to send us blazing into deep space. I've been saying forever, to just about anyone who will listen, that I'm fairly certain we should be much farther along than we are. Watching the show, "How William Shatner Changed The World", which really should have been 'How Gene Roddenberry Changed The World', since Stark Trek was his world afterall; told you of how all the nerdy boys watching Star Trek wanted it to be reality so badly that they decided they'd be the one's to bring about the technological advancements. Mobile phones, voice recognition dialing, propulsion, the PC, non invasive medical imaging... among other things. Well, here are people who see it, want it, and do it. No questions asked. Seems like we started out that way... perhaps racing against "the baddies" makes for good advancements?... and then the space program seems to have just gotten lazy. Stick to the tried and true method. Perhaps this is the kick in the pants the program has been needing for a good long while.
I can't help feeling a little dismayed by the super secret meeting at Kennedy Space Center. The President held an invitation only conference there for academics and foreign high officials. Not a single space worker was "invited to hear the President of the United States, on their own space port, speak today." Why? It's like inviting a group of people to my house, setting up in my kitchen and then saying I couldn't listen in on the meeting. Seems a bit sketchy to me.
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