{"id":435942,"date":"2010-03-16T14:44:01","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T18:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/discoblog\/?p=7505"},"modified":"2010-03-16T14:44:01","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T18:44:01","slug":"the-space-debate-when-will-nasa-astronauts-explore-the-moon-mars-and-beyond-discoblog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/435942","title":{"rendered":"The Space Debate: When Will NASA Astronauts Explore the Moon, Mars, and Beyond? | Discoblog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"solar-system\"When organizers at the American Museum of Natural History in New York decided to set up a debate on the future of manned space exploration, President Obama had not yet announced plans to cancel<\/a> the NASA program designed to carry astronauts to the moon by 2020 and Mars by 2030. That recent development only served to spice up the proceedings at last night\u2019s Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate<\/a>, moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The main theme guiding the night\u2019s proceedings was supposed to be \u201cWhere next?\u201d But based on NASA\u2019s recent change of course<\/a>, much of the night focused on how to kick the human exploration into gear.<\/p>\n

Robert Zubrin<\/a>, founder of the Mars Society, was the idealist and dominant personality on the panel, claiming \u201cwe\u2019re much closer sending men to Mars now than we were sending someone to the moon in 1961.\u201d He noted that when factoring in inflation, NASA has about the same budget for manned spaceflight as it did during the Apollo years. He encouraged a bold deadline for reaching Mars to motivate current scientists and inspire future ones.<\/p>\n

Yet the Apollo comparisons can only go so far. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the Cold War infrastructure that helped build Apollo,\u201d said Paul Spudis<\/a>, the panel\u2019s moon expert. And during the Q&A session, audience member Miles O\u2019Brien<\/a> (a space blogger and formerly CNN\u2019s science correspondent) plainly stated, \u201cThe nostalgia of the Space Race is not coming back. You can\u2019t just recreate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Most of the panel did agree, however, that NASA needs well-defined incremental goals and deadlines. \u201cIt\u2019s a fundamental mistake to give NASA $20 billion and no destination,\u201d Spudis said. \u201cIf you\u2019re not working toward something, you\u2019ll get nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the necessary motivation can only come from a modern equivalent of the USSR: Would a Chinese mission to set up colonies on Mars, Tyson hypothetically proposed, act as a modern-day Sputnik? Lester Lyles<\/a>, a retired Air Force general who served on the Augustine commission<\/a>, downplayed that threat but admitted that militarily, space \u201cis the ultimate high ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

The night also featured lively debate over the most logical destination for future astronauts. Spudis touted that recent research<\/a> has revealed that humans could use materials readily available on the moon\u2019s surface to produce potable water and rocket fuel. Zubrin cited the carbon and nitrogen on Mars, as well as the clear evidence of past liquid water. Cornell astronomer Steven Squyres<\/a> favors the asteroids because of their low gravity and abundant metallic reserves, although he says we should make the moon our first stop \u201cbefore going on to more interesting places,\u201d drawing a glare from Spudis.<\/p>\n

Noticeably absent from the discussion was a voice opposing manned exploration, which historically has taken up two-thirds of NASA\u2019s budget despite getting overshadowed by robotic missions such as Voyager and Cassini. Squyres, who is in charge of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers<\/a> on Mars, would have seemed to have been the logical person to make that argument, but he said we can\u2019t send out humans into space soon enough. \u201cHumans could do in one week what the rovers have done in six years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Related Content:
\n80beats: Fired Up: SpaceX Successfully Tests Rocket Engines; Plans for an April Launch<\/a>
\n80beats: Obama\u2019s NASA Budget: So Long, Moon Missions; Hello, Private Spaceflight<\/a>
\n80beats: Tons of Water Ice at the Moon\u2019s North Pole Could Sustain a Lunar Base<\/a>
\n80beats: Buzz Aldrin Speaks Out: Forget the Moon, Let\u2019s Head to Mars<\/a>
\n80beats: Photo Gallery: The Best Views From Spirit\u2019s 6 Years of Mars Roving<\/a><\/p>\n

Image: NASA \/ JPL<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When organizers at the American Museum of Natural History in New York decided to set up a debate on the future of manned space exploration, President Obama had not yet announced plans to cancel the NASA program designed to carry astronauts to the moon by 2020 and Mars by 2030. That recent development only served […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}