Nasa shold go to the Moon and Mars with China and Europe (at least)
Quote of the day: "No one ever held a parade for a robot." �Joan Johnson-Freese, US Naval War College.
If we're going to the moon and Mars, we should do it internationally... with Europe and China. The article below advocates as much and also discusses rumblings of a plan to create a 'UN' for space exploration. I'm not sure the world is ready for or needs a new 'UN'-like body. Might we try a different model? Like some sort-of buy-in, non-profit multinational organization? I'm just afraid of what a 'UN' with two to three times as much money and many fewer participants would look and act like. Any other ideas?
A new space race? | csmonitor.com
A new space race?
To put a man on Mars, US, Europe, and China face a stark choice: cooperate or go solo.
By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
[...]
But today, the United States and Europe, which built the space station, have reached a crossroads as they search for ways to put astronauts on Mars. One path could lead to tighter cooperation, not only between the US and Europe, but also with Russia, China, and other nations interested in manned spaceflight. The other path could lead to an international space race in which the US may find itself still in the lead but increasingly isolated.
[...]
Already, efforts at international cooperation are off to a shaky start, suggests Joan Johnson-Freese, a specialist in space and international security at the US Naval War College in Newport, R.I. She notes that President Bush announced in January his moon-and-Mars plan as a done deal and appointed a commission to lay out options for implementing it. Yet none of the potential partners was brought in at the outset, she says.
[...]
Recent results from the Red Planet have only served to whet their appetites. Over the past two months, the US rover Opportunity has uncovered virtually irrefutable geologic evidence that the Martian surface once hosted bodies of water that could have been suitable habitats for simple life forms.
Perhaps just as intriguing, Europe's Mars Express orbiter reportedly has uncovered preliminary evidence that methane is a tiny but persistent component of the Martian atmosphere.
[...]
For its part, Europe's project at this point consists of a variety of studies to lay out a vision for human spaceflight that could lead to a European astronaut setting foot on Mars by 2030, explains Franco Ongaro, who heads the effort, known as the Aurora program.
[...]
'UN' for space exploration
The International Academy of Astronautics is finishing a report outlining a range of approaches for cooperation on future space-exploration activities, says James Zimmerman, who for 12 years served as NASA's representative in Europe and currently heads a space-policy consulting firm in McLean, Va.
One possibility would be to establish an international body outside the United Nations framework, but modeled after ESA, that would coordinate an international moon-Mars effort, says Kevin Madders, a space policy consultant in Brussels.
Since 1958, NASA policy has forbidden the agency to go down what he terms this more "organic" road to cooperation in manned spaceflight, he says. "You've got to have a very good reason to change that track. Taking on the moon and Mars could provide such a reason."
Posted by joebeone at Abril 1, 2004 03:10 PM | TrackBack