SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2008 THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY ISSUE 5 VOLUME 47 SPACE TIMES • September/October 2008 1 AAS OFFICERS PRESIDENT Frank A. Slazer, SBD Consulting EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Lyn D. Wigbels, RWI International Consulting Services SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2008 VICE PRESIDENT–TECHNICAL Srinivas R. Vadali, Texas A&M University VICE PRESIDENT–PROGRAMS ISSUE 5–VOLUME 47 Mary L. Snitch, Lockheed Martin VICE PRESIDENT–PUBLICATIONS David B. Spencer, Penn State University VICE PRESIDENT–MEMBERSHIP J. Walter Faulconer, Applied Physics Laboratory VICE PRESIDENT–EDUCATION Kirk W. Kittell, SAIC VICE PRESIDENT–FINANCE Carol S. Lane, Ball Aerospace THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY VICE PRESIDENT–INTERNATIONAL Clayton Mowry, Arianespace, Inc. VICE PRESIDENT–PUBLIC POLICY William B. Adkins, Adkins Strategies, LLC PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE VICE PRESIDENT–STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH Happy 50th Birthday NASA! 3 Mary Lynne Dittmar, Dittmar Associates LEGAL COUNSEL Franceska O. Schroeder, Fish & Richardson P.C. FEATURES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The Eighth Continent: The Importance of Returning James R. Kirkpatrick, AAS to the Moon 4 Since the Vision for Space Exploration was announced in 2004, there AAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS has been an on-going debate about the importance of taking the next TERM EXPIRES 2008 step in space exploration, a return to the moon. Peter M. Bainum, Howard University by Col. Ronald J. Garan David A. Cicci, Auburn University Lynn F.H. Cline Nancy S.A. Colleton, Institute for Global Rare von Braun Material Auctioned 7 Environmental Strategies Mark K. Craig, SAIC New York-based auction house Bonhams recently facilitated the sale Roger D. Launius, Smithsonian Institution of a series of hand-drawn sketches and personal correspondence Jonathan T. Malay, Lockheed Martin from pioneering rocket physicist Wernher von Braun. Kathy J. Nado, L-3 Communications by Jeff Elbel Richard M. Obermann, House Committee on Science & Technology TERM EXPIRES 2009 Reviving Space Flight Classics 11 Marc S. Allen Print-on-Demand has made available expensive or hard to find books Steven Brody, International Space University of interest to space historians. The end result is a shelf of classic space Ashok R. Deshmukh, Technica, Inc. books. Graham Gibbs, Canadian Space Agency Steven D. Harrison, BAE Systems by Ron Miller Sue E. Hegg, The Boeing Company Arthur F. Obenschain Ian Pryke, CAPR, George Mason University AAS NEWS Ronald J. Proulx, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory 16 Trevor C. Sorensen, University of Hawaii AAS National Conference and 55th Annual Meeting Pasadena, California TERM EXPIRES 2010 Linda Billings, SETI Institute Ronald J. Birk, Northrop Grumman Rebecca L. Griffin, Griffin Aerospace CALL FOR PAPERS Hal E. Hagemeier, National Security Space Office 12th International Space Conference of Pacific-basin Dennis Lowrey, General Dynamics Molly Kenna Macauley, Resources for the Future Societies (ISCOPS) 18 Erin Neal, ATK Montreal, Quebec, Canada Lesa B. Roe Rosanna Sattler, Posternak Blankstein & Lund LLP Robert H. Schingler, Jr. Woodrow Whitlow, Jr. AAS CORPORATE MEMBER PROFILE Universities Research Space Association (USRA) 20 SPACE TIMES EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR, Jeffrey P. Elbel UPCOMING EVENTS 21 PHOTO & GRAPHICS EDITOR, Dustin Doud PRODUCTION MANAGER, Diane L. Thompson BUSINESS MANAGER, James R. Kirkpatrick NOTES ON NEW BOOKS SPACE TIMES is published bimonthly by the American Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance 22 Astronautical Society, a professional non-profit society. SPACE Reviewed by Joan Johnson-Freese TIMES is free to members of the AAS. Individual subscriptions may be ordered from the AAS Business Office. © Copyright 2008 by the American Astronautical Society, Inc. Printed in the United 2007 Emme Award for Astronautical Literature 23 States of America. ISSN 1933-2793. Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War Reviewed by Rick W. Sturdevant PERIODICALS SPACE TIMES, magazine of the AAS, bimonthly, volume 47, 2008—$80 domestic, $95 foreign The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, quarterly, volume 56, 2008—$170 domestic, $190 foreign To order these publications, contact the AAS Business Office. 6352 Rolling Mill Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22152-2354 USA REPRINTS Tel: 703-866-0020 Fax: 703-866-3526 Reprints are available for all articles in SPACE TIMES and all pa- [email protected] www.astronautical.org pers published in The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences. 2 SPACE TIMES • September/October 2008 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Happy 50th Birthday NASA! The day before I wrote this message, I had the good fortune to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of NASA’s creation at the Udvar Hazy wing of the National Air and Space Museum. It was a terrific event (kudos to all those at AIAA who pulled it together), although the timing could not have been more ominous. While the 3,000 or so attendees toasted NASA’s accomplishments, the President was addressing the nation on a fiscal crisis unlike any other in American history. At the same time, our nation is engaged in two wars with hundreds of thousands of our nations’ finest citizens putting their lives on the line. Despite this ominous reality, a wide range of conversations at the celebration often focused on either the great space achievements of the past or the exciting exploration prospects for the future. It’s fair to ask whether the attendees were all suffering from some sort of collective disconnection from reality. Won’t all of these ideas for the future be shelved now that we have to pay for an expensive bailout of the financial sector? Maybe, but I doubt it. Our dreams may be deferred, but they will not be denied. NASA may face tough budgetary sledding in the near term, but I do not believe that our nation will lose its faith in the future. It is appropriate to ask what we have gotten from NASA in the past 50 years. Some things are obvious – safer aviation, moon rocks, national heroes, vistas of and from other worlds, new insights into our own, and even a better understanding of the universe. But most of all, we have gained a new perspective on the ability of our nation to achieve great and noble things. This is not to imply that NASA as a government agency is perfect, or that it has made its achievements alone. Certainly, the people I know at NASA would not fail to recognize the contributions of the academic community, the aerospace industry, and space entrepreneurs. But it is through NASA that many of these efforts have been funded, and it is through NASA that we as a society focus on the future. At the risk of infringing on a certain Presidential campaign’s trademark slogan, I would suggest that, most of all, what NASA has given us – and continues to give – is hope. NASA provides hope for a future that will be better than the present, hope that we will be able to meet the many challenges that face us as a nation and as a species, and hope that our scientists and engineers will be able to devise solutions to a wide range of challenges from global climate change to diminishing fossil fuel supplies. Thanks for that, NASA – and thanks to us all for keeping that hope alive. AAS – Advancing All Space Frank A. Slazer [email protected] ON THE COVER FRONT: Tropical Storm Fay makes landfall after meandering in the Atlantic Ocean. (Source: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team) BACK: Sir Richard Branson and SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan unveil the WhiteKnightTwo. The carrier aircraft will ferry SpaceShipTwo, which in turn shall deliver private astronauts, science packages, and payloads to suborbital altitudes in 2009. (Source: Virgin Galactic) SPACE TIMES • September/October 2008 3 The Eighth Continent: The Importance of Returning to the Moon by Col. Ronald J. Garan On May 10, 1869, a golden spike joined space exploration and development, but enterprises could be developed to benefit two railways at Promontory Point, Utah, this time with a positive impact on the life on Earth, conducting scientific study completing the first transcontinental environment. To begin a period of which leading to new technologies and railroad. On January 14, 2004, the sustainable space exploration, both the discoveries, inspiring young people toward President announced a new vision for our public and private sectors of our nation higher education, and utilizing space Nation’s space exploration program. must seize the opportunity. resources to assist the spread of prosperity President Bush committed the United Since the Vision for Space Exploration throughout the world. States to a long-term human program to was announced, there has been ongoing We should not return to the moon for explore the solar system, starting with a debate about the importance of taking the any one of these reasons, but for all of them return to the moon. next step in space exploration, a return to and more. By first establishing the basic There is no doubt that the railroad the moon. Reasons for taking this next step infrastructure for a transportation system changed the world. It opened up frontiers include a compelling human need to between the Earth and the moon and a to discovery, settlement, and commerce. explore the universe. Once we gain a sustainable, semi-autonomous, permanent The railroad was the backbone for the foothold on the Moon, we can prepare for human settlement, we will open the door industrial revolution that catalyzed the journeys to worlds beyond our own, to significant benefits for all. Of course, largest increase in life expectancy and providing benefits outside the realm of any permanent lunar base must be improvement in quality of life in history. exploration. Products will be developed economically and politically sustainable Just as the industrial revolution brought which could help to ease the world’s energy and therefore must provide tangible about unprecedented improvements in problems, and protect the planet from benefits and a return on investment.