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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
From what I know of Tom, he is a keen observer and a deep thinker,
and not a half-bad writer, either. Pay attention to his ideas. Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book Monday January 23, 6:00 am ET http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060123/nym016.html?.v=37 NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- With the 20th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster approaching (January 28), a former shuttle astronaut is saying that NASA needs to rethink its goals in space as set forth by President Bush. "His decision to send Americans beyond low Earth orbit was a long-needed statement of our nation's belief in the benefits of exploration and discovery," says four-time space shuttle veteran Tom Jones. "But the new vision leaves out some important details and misses other opportunities for sustaining and strengthening our exploration program." Jones makes the statements in a forthcoming book, SKY WALKING: An Astronaut's Memoir, due out next month. Jones spent eleven years as an astronaut, completed four missions aboard the space shuttle (including one aboard the ill-fated Columbia, which exploded three years ago on February 1) and helped to construct the International Space Station. With another shuttle launch scheduled for later this year, Jones is ready to discuss his thoughts about what the future of the space program should be. Perhaps surprisingly for a former shuttle astronaut, his first suggestion is to move quickly to retire the shuttle in favor of a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), currently in development. Other ideas he proposes in SKY WALKING include: -- Using the shuttle's massive external tank and reliable boosters to develop a heavy-lift cargo ship, which could be used to complete the International Space Station and to lift the heavier spacecraft required for voyages beyond low Earth orbit (and possibly open up opportunities for tourism and industrial activity, such as orbital hotels and lunar and asteroid refineries). -- Populating the International Space Station before its scheduled completion in 2010. -- Rethinking President Bush's goal of returning astronauts to the moon. -- Jones favors targeting near-Earth asteroids or even the Martian moons instead. "Only if the moon hosts significant natural resources, such as recoverable water ice at its poles, should we make a major investment in sending people to live and work there for the long term." In his book he also discusses the meticulous testing and screening, and the grueling training, that go into making an astronaut; his experiences in space, which he describes as "incredible adventures, replete with exhilaration, anxiety, satisfaction, disappointment, amazement, and danger;" the personal side of being an astronaut, including the toll his career took on his wife and family; and even the spiritual aspects of spaceflight. |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
I haven't read Jones' book yet, I'm still finishing "First Man". I have
had conversations with him and I agree that he is a real on-the-ball kind of guy. He has spoken several times at our museum since he is from Baltimore. Very friendly fellow with a very sweet Mom. A few years ago, Tom first spoke at our musuem. I had the delightful duty of taking Dr. Jones and his Mom to dinner. His tales of flying B-52s and performing EVA on ISS kept me and my son enthralled. It was an event I'll never forget. As a matter of fact, in the week that followed, my school age son went to see the space station IMAX movie. Tom Jones is seen in the film and of course my son called out: "That's the astronaut I ate dinner with!" Gene DiGennaro Baltimore, Md. |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
Mostly agreed. :-)
Tom's a good observer, thinker, and analyst and I'll call him quite a good writer; I enjoyed his book _The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASA_ (and I enjoy your books too :-) and his series of articles in Aerospace America. He's also an excellent speaker and has the ability to connect with everyone in the crowd at once from kids to non-technical adults to people in the space biz. He's a great person and a class act. I look forward to reading _Sky Walking_. -- rk On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 14:56:17 GMT, "Jim Oberg" wrote: From what I know of Tom, he is a keen observer and a deep thinker, and not a half-bad writer, either. Pay attention to his ideas. Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book Monday January 23, 6:00 am ET http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060123/nym016.html?.v=37 NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- With the 20th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster approaching (January 28), a former shuttle astronaut is saying that NASA needs to rethink its goals in space as set forth by President Bush. "His decision to send Americans beyond low Earth orbit was a long-needed statement of our nation's belief in the benefits of exploration and discovery," says four-time space shuttle veteran Tom Jones. "But the new vision leaves out some important details and misses other opportunities for sustaining and strengthening our exploration program." [ snip ] -- rk, Just an OldEngineer "The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people." -- Kelly Johnson in Skunk Works |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
Jim Oberg wrote: From what I know of Tom, he is a keen observer and a deep thinker, and not a half-bad writer, either. Pay attention to his ideas. I always thought the Moon aspect was pretty pointless- if you are going to send people somewhere, let it be somewhere new. Pat |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:15:09 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote: I always thought the Moon aspect was pretty pointless- if you are going to send people somewhere, let it be somewhere new. Depends if your goal is to send people somewhere or to have them do something worthwhile when they get there. -- Roy L |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
Pat Flannery ) wrote:
: Jim Oberg wrote: : From what I know of Tom, he is a keen observer and a deep thinker, : and not a half-bad writer, either. Pay attention to his ideas. : : : : I always thought the Moon aspect was pretty pointless- if you are going : to send people somewhere, let it be somewhere new. Well, I like the idea about looking for water. Makes me wonder if one of the 6 lunar missions couldn't have tried one of the poles for exactly that. When we do go back, looking for natural resources should be the priority and not flags and footprints. Eric : Pat |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
Eric Chomko wrote:
: Jim Oberg wrote: : From what I know of Tom, he is a keen observer and a deep thinker, : and not a half-bad writer, either. Pay attention to his ideas. : : : : I always thought the Moon aspect was pretty pointless- if you are going : to send people somewhere, let it be somewhere new. Well, I like the idea about looking for water. Makes me wonder if one of the 6 lunar missions couldn't have tried one of the poles for exactly that. When we do go back, looking for natural resources should be the priority and not flags and footprints. That's what the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and presumably a Lunar Polar Lander (LPL) are for, should the results of the LRO confirm positively. http://cosmic.lifeform.org |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote: I always thought the Moon aspect was pretty pointless- if you are going to send people somewhere, let it be somewhere new. If you're convinced that the program is going to fall apart after ten years, and you want to get the best possible value out of it before then, going somewhere new for your flags-and-footprints exercise makes sense. If you at least *hope* that it's going to be an ongoing effort which makes systematic progress over time, you want to pick up where we left off. The Moon is still largely unexplored; Apollo barely scratched the surface. -- spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. | |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
Henry Spencer wrote: If you're convinced that the program is going to fall apart after ten years, and you want to get the best possible value out of it before then, going somewhere new for your flags-and-footprints exercise makes sense. I doubt we'll even get back to the Moon, I picture this whole program going the way of most of the NASA spacecraft ideas of the past twenty years; they do a mock-up, they start building a prototype, they hit a technical or financial snag, and they dump it. If you at least *hope* that it's going to be an ongoing effort which makes systematic progress over time, you want to pick up where we left off. The Moon is still largely unexplored; Apollo barely scratched the surface. It's also boring. "Magnificent Desolation" would be a great description of the Gobi Desert, but at least there you have air and neat dinosaur fossils to look for. Although the Moon would make an obvious place to set up a base for further exploration of the solar system, this plan goes nowhere near suggesting that or the degree of funding it would require. Pat |
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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book
Pat Flannery wrote:
Although the Moon would make an obvious place to set up a base for further exploration of the solar system Why? I can't see what benefit a lunar base provides for, say, travelling to Mars, unless you're going to build spacecraft from lunar materials: in which case you'll need a heck of a lot infrastructure to do so. Maybe a little benefit for learning to live on other airless low-gravity moons, but it seems a bit circular to build a base on the moon so that you can practice for building bases on other moons without a good reason for doing so in the first place. Personally I have a strong suspicion that the first significant lunar base will be a construction camp for the Copernicus Hilton a few decades from now, not a NASA site. Mark |
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