Can Rep. John Culberson Save NASA's Space Exploration Program?

MarkWhittington writes The Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger has published the seventh in his series of articles about the American space program and what ails it. The piece focuses on Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, who has two fascinating aspects. The first is that he is taking over the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA funding. The second is that he has a keen appreciation for the benefits of space exploration for its own sake and not just for his Houston area district.

Culberson wants to save NASA and the space program from his fellow politicians and return it to its true glory. He favors sending American astronauts back to the moon and a robotic space probe to Jupiter's moon Europa. He would like to enact budget reforms that take funding decisions away from the Office of Management and Budget and gives them solely to Congress. He favors a steady increase in NASA funding to pay for a proper program of space exploration. To say the least, he has his work cut out for him.

Comments

Space exploration?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or glory?

What's the real mission here? Space exploration is such a loaded term, what does it mean? Do you need to send test pilots in the upper atmosphere? For what? What can they do that can't be done on the ground? Is getting 400 kilometers closer to Andromeda somehow changing anything?

And glory? That's nationalistic flag-waving nonsense. Let's all grow up and set aside the fantasies here.

Simple, No!

[s.petry]

First, a single person is not supposed to be able to do anything within our Senate or Congress. It takes votes, and a majority must agree with anything this person puts forward for legislation.

Second, nothing is getting done in our Government due to massive cronyism and corruption. Until that is fixed, we will continue to see nothing but garbage come out of our Politicians. Start petitions to put people on ballots and vote _them_ into office. People with high moral character, not career politicians. Outside of an outright revolt or military coup, that is the only hope we have to fix things.

Ballot information is here, and more information is here.

Has NASA done all that badly?

[david_bonn]

I wonder sometimes.

NASA has sent spaceprobes to every planet in the solar system. And turned those places from lights in the sky into worlds.

NASA has discovered volcanism on Io, Enceladus, Triton and probably Venus.

NASA has discovered thousands of extrasolar planets with the Kepler probe.

The various CMB probes have mapped out the very early history of the universe.

All of this in less than fifty years.

You could argue that NASA has mapped more land area than all of the explorers in history, combined. Until we visit other stars no one will beat that record.

Really, has NASA done that badly?

Big bags of water... that's what we are.

[duckintheface]

The human body is a fragile bag of water, not well suited to radiation exposure, temperature extremes,changes in air pressure, high acceleration forces, or long periods of isolation from a sustaining biosphere. Almost anything that can be done in space is better done by robots. The ONLY reason for people to venture into space is to get to the surface of another habitable planet for which we are evolved. And there is only one such place in reach: MARS!

Yes there are good reasons for going to Mars. Greatest among them is to safeguard the species from any catestrophic impacts on Earth they would extinguish us. We have the technology to colonize Mars now. To make it economical, colonization should be a one-way pioneering trip. Nobody comes back, ever. (I made this suggestion to NASA 17 years ago and was told that NASA does not do suicide missions. Now, many folks at NASA have come around to my point of view. )

Rep. Culberson has not learned the crucial lesson from the demise of the Apollo program... that political motivations for exploring space are not sustainable in the minds of a fickle constituency that wants to be entertained by a list of new "American Firsts in Space". Colonization of Mars requires the serious dedication of the best scientists of Earth to the mission of human survival.

Forget the moon. In terms of the fuel required to reach it on a one-way mission, it is not really much closer than Mars. I has far less to offer as a base for a new sustainable human civilization. (Although I'm sure it would make a nice military base to shoot stuff at Earth). The fact the Rep. Culberson is talking about returning to the moon is the best indication that he is not a serious thinker about why NASA should be involved in human space travel.