By way of introduction, I'm the Space Frontier Foundation's Chairman. As a quick correction, we are NOT comproised "mostly of aerospace companies"; entrepreneurial aerospace people were well represented at the just-concluded conference, but the Foundation itself is made up of a broad spectrum of people. Me personally, I'm a sysadmin and systems analyst, as an example.
We were MOST pleased with Mr. Goldin's remarks. We could have written a large portion of his speech ourselves. Commercializing Station and Shuttle, as well as generally getting NASA out of the "Near Frontier" has been stated Foundation policy for years. It's nice to see the message getting through.
We divide space into the "Near Frontier" and the "Far Frontier" for convenience. The "Near Frontier" is everything this side of (and including) the moon. It's places we've been, and know how to get to and work in. NASA shouldn't be spending resources doing operational activities in the Near Frontier. Governmenbt (not necessarily NASA) should be purchacing data and services it needs commercially in the Near Frontier. They do that currently with non-shuttle launches, and there is some data purchase activity going on, but shuttle and station privatization and commercialization are the KEY to getting NASA off the Near Frontier and back to it's proper role. That would be moving out to the Far Frontier, exploring Mars, asteroids, outer planets and their moons, looking for signs of life elsewhere in the universe, etc.
The nice thing about this breakdown into Near Frontier/Far Frontier is that we can keep moving the boundary outwards as private-sector capabilities are created ever farther from Earth.
I'd also like to agree with another post I saw elsewhere in this thread - Mr. Goldin has done an outstanding job as Administrator. He hasn't been able to do as much as we'd like for him to have done - but in fairness, he hasn't been able to do as much as he'd like to have done. Given the constraints put on him by COngress and the White House and some institutional inertia that he's needed to overcome in-house, I'd say he's done a fantastic job as Administrator. We'll need to build on his successes in the coming years.
---- Michael K. Heney Chairman, Space Frontier Foundation
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By way of introduction, I'm the Space Frontier Foundation's Chairman. As a quick correction, we are NOT comproised "mostly of aerospace companies"; entrepreneurial aerospace people were well represented at the just-concluded conference, but the Foundation itself is made up of a broad spectrum of people. Me personally, I'm a sysadmin and systems analyst, as an example.
We were MOST pleased with Mr. Goldin's remarks. We could have written a large portion of his speech ourselves. Commercializing Station and Shuttle, as well as generally getting NASA out of the "Near Frontier" has been stated Foundation policy for years. It's nice to see the message getting through.
We divide space into the "Near Frontier" and the "Far Frontier" for convenience. The "Near Frontier" is everything this side of (and including) the moon. It's places we've been, and know how to get to and work in. NASA shouldn't be spending resources doing operational activities in the Near Frontier. Governmenbt (not necessarily NASA) should be purchacing data and services it needs commercially in the Near Frontier. They do that currently with non-shuttle launches, and there is some data purchase activity going on, but shuttle and station privatization and commercialization are the KEY to getting NASA off the Near Frontier and back to it's proper role. That would be moving out to the Far Frontier, exploring Mars, asteroids, outer planets and their moons, looking for signs of life elsewhere in the universe, etc.
The nice thing about this breakdown into Near Frontier/Far Frontier is that we can keep moving the boundary outwards as private-sector capabilities are created ever farther from Earth.
I'd also like to agree with another post I saw elsewhere in this thread - Mr. Goldin has done an outstanding job as Administrator. He hasn't been able to do as much as we'd like for him to have done - but in fairness, he hasn't been able to do as much as he'd like to have done. Given the constraints put on him by COngress and the White House and some institutional inertia that he's needed to overcome in-house, I'd say he's done a fantastic job as Administrator. We'll need to build on his successes in the coming years.
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Michael K. Heney
Chairman, Space Frontier Foundation