NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY ISSUE 6 VOLUME 46 SPACE TIMES • November/December 2007 1 AAS OFFICERS PRESIDENT Frank A. Slazer, United Launch Alliance EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2007 Lyn Wigbels, RWI International Consulting Services VICE PRESIDENT–TECHNICAL Rao S. Vadali, Texas A&M University VICE PRESIDENT–PROGRAMS ISSUE 6–VOLUME 46 Mary L. Snitch, Lockheed Martin VICE PRESIDENT–PUBLICATIONS David B. Spencer, Penn State University VICE PRESIDENT–MEMBERSHIP Walter Faulconer, Applied Physics Laboratory VICE PRESIDENT–EDUCATION Kirk Kittell, Orbital Sciences Corporation THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY VICE PRESIDENT–FINANCE Carol Lane, Ball Aerospace VICE PRESIDENT–INTERNATIONAL Clayton Mowry, Arianespace, Inc. VICE PRESIDENT–PUBLIC POLICY William B. Adkins, Adkins Strategies, LLC PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE LEGAL COUNSEL “We Just Need to Communicate Better”... Not 3 Franceska O. Schroeder, Fish & Richardson P.C. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR James R. Kirkpatrick, AAS FEATURES AAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mars Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Space Exploration Initiative 4 TERM EXPIRES 2008 On the 20th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon, Peter M. Bainum, Howard University John C. Beckman President George H.W. Bush proposed a long-range human exploration David A. Cicci, Auburn University plan. Within a few short years, the initiative had faded into history. Lynn F.H. Cline by Thor Hogan Nancy S.A. Colleton, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies Mark K. Craig, SAIC Defending the Earth from Falling Comets and Asteroids 6 Roger D. Launius, Smithsonian Institution The Earth is constantly bombarded by celestial objects, a situation that Jonathan T. Malay, Lockheed Martin Kathy J. Nado, Computer Sciences Corporation warrants consideration of protective measures. Richard M. Obermann, House Committee on Science by Yoji Kondo TERM EXPIRES 2009 Marc S. Allen AAS NEWS Steven Brody, International Space University Ashok R. Deshmukh, Technica Inc. New AAS Officers and Board 10 Graham Gibbs, Canadian Space Agency Steven D. Harrison, BAE Systems Sue E. Hegg, The Boeing Company 46th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium 11 Arthur F. Obenschain March 4-6, 2008 Ian Pryke, CAPR, George Mason University Ronald J. Proulx, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Trevor C. Sorensen, University of Hawaii Amazing Summer at the International Space University 12 TERM EXPIRES 2010 by Audrey Schaffer and Ian Christensen Linda Billings, SETI Institute Ron Birk, Northrop Grumman 2007 AAS National Conference Report 13 Rebecca Griffin, Griffin Aerospace Hal Hagemeier, Georgia Tech by Rick W. Sturdevant Dennis Lowery, General Dynamics Molly Macauley, Resources for the Future Erin Neal, ATK NOTES ON NEW BOOKS Lesa Roe Rosanna Sattler, Posternak Blankstein & Lund LLP Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, Robert H. Schingler, Jr. 1976-2004 20 Woodrow Whitlow, Jr. 2006 AAS Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award: Winner Reviewed by Rick W. Sturdevant SPACE TIMES EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR, Jeffrey P. Elbel Testing the Limits: Aviation Medicine and the Origins of PHOTO & GRAPHICS EDITOR, Dustin Doud Manned Space Flight 21 PRODUCTION MANAGER, Diane L. Thompson BUSINESS MANAGER, James R. Kirkpatrick 2006 AAS Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award: Honorable Mention Reviewed by Donald C. Elder III SPACE TIMES is published bimonthly by the American Astronautical Society, a professional non-profit society. SPACE TIMES is free to members of the AAS. Individual subscriptions UPCOMING EVENTS 23 may be ordered from the AAS Business Office. © Copyright 2007 by the American Astronautical Society, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. ISSN 1933-2793. PERIODICALS SPACE TIMES, magazine of the AAS, bimonthly, volume 46, 2007—$80 domestic, $95 foreign The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, quarterly, volume 55, 2007—$170 domestic, $190 foreign To order these publications, contact the AAS Business Office. 6352 Rolling Mill Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22152-2354 U.S.A. REPRINTS Phone: 703-866-0020 Fax: 703-866-3526 Reprints are available for all articles in SPACE TIMES and all [email protected] www.astronautical.org papers published in The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences. 2 SPACE TIMES • November/December 2007 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE “We Just Need to Communicate Better”… NOT It is widely recognized that a principal challenge facing NASA’s human spaceflight program, and the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) as well, is sustainability of support. Sustainability is required across administrations and congressional sessions, across national and world events, across budget crises, and even across generations. How do we ensure that human missions to Mars continue after the first several successful landings? Recent research has validated that the keys to sustainable support are NASA’s relevance, its value, and its benefit-to-cost. That seems obvious. But what is relevance, really? How is it established? What is value, and how is it delivered? Apollo’s value was demonstrating American superiority over the Soviet Union while increasing the pride and reducing the fears of the American people. After the Moon race was won and American superiority was truly felt, Apollo was canceled. Its benefit-to-cost was deemed too low. Apollo’s value had been delivered simply by communicating progress on a mission which in the 1960’s was an emotional blockbuster: send a man to the Moon and return him safely within the decade. Research has shown that most people in the 2000’s do not find the missions of Space Shuttle or International Space Station or VSE to be self-evident emotional blockbusters. Their value can no longer be delivered simply through communication. Moreover, value cannot be delivered by merely asserting that it exists. Value is authentic only when it is actually experienced. People must feel pride, rather than simply hearing assertions that they should be proud. People must feel less fear, n rather than simply hearing assertions that they should not be afraid. How is this accomplished? Relevance and value must be built into the way NASA does business if human spaceflight and the Vision for Space Exploration are to be sustainable. Delivery of value must be deliberate - it must be owned, managed, budgeted and staffed. It must be based upon rigorous research, not personal opinion or urban legend. Within the policy of science-driven lunar and Mars exploration, value delivery must shape architectures, mission sequences, operation concepts, landing sites, payloads, cameras, crew selection and training, bandwidth, press releases, naming conventions, and everything else identified by value research. This will require that NASA import the substantial value delivery capabilities, processes, tools, and expertise that exist in other domains. Sustainability, too, requires far more than better communication! Since my term is now ending, this is my final President’s Message. It has been one of the great honors and privileges of my life to have served as President of this remarkable Society. Thank you. And thanks to Jim Kirkpatrick and the officers with whom I’ve served for everything done to strengthen the AAS and place it on a robust trajectory into the future. Best wishes to our new President, Frank Slazer, and our new team of officers! Mark Craig [email protected] ON THE COVER FRONT: The first operational Delta 4-Heavy rocket blasts away from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 37 on November 10, 2007 at 8:50 p.m. EST carrying the 23rd and final Defense Support Program missile warning satellite for the U.S. Air Force. (Source: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance) BACK: Goodyear’s prototype non-pneumatic lunar tire, under development for use first on the Moon and eventually on Mars. (Source: Goodyear) SPACE TIMES • November/December 2007 3 Mars Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Space Exploration Initiative by Thor Hogan On the 20th anniversary of the first innovative solutions to technical problems. Space had recommended human human landing on the Moon, President Personality clashes matched Vice President exploration of Mars as the appropriate George H.W. Bush stood atop the steps of Dan Quayle and Space Council Executive long-term objective of the space program, the National Air and Space Museum in Secretary Mark Albrecht against NASA and President Bush was an outspoken Washington, D.C. and proposed a long- Administrator Dick Truly and Johnson supporter of the space program. On the range human exploration plan that included Space Center Director Aaron Cohen. Some larger national stage, however, more the successful construction of an orbital commentators have argued that SEI was significant forces were developing that space station, a permanent return to the doomed to fail, due primarily to the didn’t bode well for the adoption of an Moon, and a mission to Mars. This immense budgetary pressures facing the overly aggressive or expensive new enterprise became known as the Space nation during the early 1990s. Failure, undertaking in human spaceflight. In Exploration Initiative (SEI). The president however, was not predetermined. Instead, particular, a struggling economy and rising charged the newly reestablished National it was the result of a deeply flawed deficits were placing enormous pressure on Space Council with providing concrete decision-making process which failed to the federal budget. This political reality alternatives for meeting these objectives. develop (or even consider) policy options