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Former Astronaut Says Space Goals Need Revision in New Book



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 23rd 06, 03:56 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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.




  #2  
Old January 23rd 06, 04:53 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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.

  #3  
Old January 24th 06, 08:41 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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
  #4  
Old January 24th 06, 03:15 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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
  #5  
Old January 24th 06, 03:52 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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
  #6  
Old January 24th 06, 09:11 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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
  #7  
Old January 24th 06, 09:17 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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
  #8  
Old January 25th 06, 04:10 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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. |
  #9  
Old January 25th 06, 03:23 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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
  #10  
Old January 25th 06, 06:14 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Default 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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