On 19 September, NASA announced the results of its Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), aimed at implementing the Vision for Space Exploration proposed by the President early in 2004. Under this plan, humans will return to the Moon by 2018, a little over four and a half decades since the last Apollo mission, this time to stay. This is being presented as the first step in a continuing journey to extend human presence out into the solar system.
Such an undertaking will not be inexpensive and will demand the best of this nation, and of many other nations, in terms of talented and dedicated astronauts, scientists, engineers and managers. NASA has made it clear however, that requests for large increases in the Agency’s budget are not foreseen. Funding for exploration is projected to come from within a rebalanced and refocused NASA budget which is not expected to grow significantly in the foreseeable future. To date, this fact has not been acknowledged in the majority of press coverage of the Exploration Systems Architecture.
In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita the U.S. Government finds itself faced with large, unforeseen demands on the public purse, demands that must be met, for the good of a not insignificant portion of its citizenry. While dealing with the problems of the present, however, we must also be prepared to make a down-payment on the future. This down-payment is not unlike the down-payment made in the last century that led to weather and communications satellites that now provide assets that aid in the prediction and assessment of such natural disasters and assist in the recovery from them.
An important element of the future will be the continued exploration of the Solar System by both humans and robots for the benefit of all humankind. NASA and the Administration must educate and excite the American people about the nation’s space exploration plan and its benefits, and must deliberately build the creation and delivery of these benefits, both technical and societal, into the Exploration Systems Architecture implementation. Technological, engineering and scientific competitiveness has and will continue to rely on breakthroughs by space exploration. At this critical juncture in our history, the U.S. should not abandon its technological leadership and its spirit of exploration.
The 21st Century will be the time in which humankind establishes itself permanently on other bodies in the solar system, one of the most significant undertakings in human history. In this great enterprise, America can choose to be a leader or it can choose to leave that role to other nations.
The AAS urges the Administration and the Congress to do all that is necessary to ensure that NASA is adequately funded in the coming years, so that it can pursue a balanced program of science and applications, which must include the implementation of the proposed Exploration Systems Architecture, thus ensuring that we as a nation play a leadership role in opening the Solar System.
