Mars-Venus Flyby: The First Space Priority for the Next President

The 2021 Mars-Venus Flyby

There is no doubt the next president will set NASA back on track towards sending Americans to the Moon and Mars.

The current administration cancelled without replacement all plans to return to the moon and go to Mars. We lost at least eight years, and gave China and Russia a similar head start. Thankfully, Congress refused to cancel the rocket that can take us to the Moon and Mars, and in the FY 2016 budget has mandated building a transit habitat for long-duration missions such as the Mars-Venus flyby, offering the next administration the ability to get busy with little delay.

In just eight years in the 1960s, we went from Project Mercury to landing on the Moon. In one decade we built the International Space Station. In one decade from today we could have a Lunar base, and in les than two decades a Mars base.

Here's how to get NASA back on track:

On the first day in office, the new president must direct NASA to cancel the "Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), and replace it with the 2021 Mars-Venus flyby. This would be the kickoff mission for a renewed space program which would put us on a real "journey to Mars."

Additional Venus Flyby

The 2021 flyby opportunity is too good to pass up, and it can be accomplished in the given timeframe because most elements are currently in development.

It will be the "Apollo 8" for Mars; that is, it will validate the technologies for missions to Mars in the same way as Apollo 8 proved we could get to and from the Moon before daring to land. As a bonus, the 2021 window offers the rare opportunity to flyby Venus as well.

The flyby mission will take our space exploration program out of "Scrub" and put it into "Launch," and get underway a relatively simple but breathtaking mission which will inspire youth, the general public, as well as Congress and opinion leaders. It will force the development of key technologies for Mars missions a decade or more earlier than would otherwise happen.

The flyby will get us back in space while the administration readies the national space strategy which will take Americans to the Moon and Mars sooner than we have been led to believe is possible.

You can help:

Space experts and advocates should use the next year to talk to the presidential candidates and their senior staff; advocating a return to a bold space program worthy of the United States, and to avoid merely watching as China and Russia seize the lead in space for a generation. Suggest they use the flyby as the replacement for the ARM, and as the immediate goal for NASA while they develop the long range space strategy.

China and perhaps Russia will begin their conquests of the Moon in the early 2020s, and prepare for Mars missions in the 2030s. Given China's increasing threats of war to seize the South China Sea in violation of 400 years of freedom of the seas, we must not assume China will not try to claim the Moon and Mars as their own property.

Restoring America's leadership in space must therefore become a part of the 2016 campaign.

There are different 'selling points' for the space program which will resonate for different candidates. Restoring the legacy of JFK's leadership, creating many new high tech jobs, spin-off advances in green energy and environmental technologies. National security concerns from ceding space to the tyrannies, undoing the damage the current president did to our future as the leader in space, advancing U.S. high tech competitiveness, making America great again, and restoring international respect and national prosperity.

The 2021 Mars-Venus flyby enjoys great support in Congress, with NASA engineers, and among space experts and advocates. It is easier to accomplish, more exciting, and offers far greater returns than the ARM; and will fit into current budget projections.

Replacing the ARM with the flyby is the best possible short-term goal for NASA, and one which will inspire the public and Congress to overwhelmingly support a real return to the Moon in the 2020s and a real journey to Mars in the 2030s.

NASA Asteroid Mission is a Detour from the Moon & Mars

Policy Statement

The Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration cannot endorse the NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), for it would be a decade-and-a-half detour from bold and possible missions to the moon and Mars.

NASA scaled back the ARM from redirecting an entire small asteroid to lunar orbit, to only removing a small boulder from an asteroid. The new plan would send an unmanned probe to try to remove the rock from an asteroid in the early 2020s, and if successful, send a manned mission to explore it, perhaps 12-15 years from now.

That's it. The manned deep space exploration effort from now through most of the 2020s would be consumed with preparing for this single manned expedition.

This is not a "shoot for the moon" or "in this decade" type of roadmap like those which took us to the moon in just eight years from President Kennedy's challenge, built the incredible ISS in a decade, launched 135 shuttle missions, and accomplished so much more that awed the world and even improved our health.

ARM is not worthy of the United States, unless it were an additional exercise during a period of building a lunar base, accomplishing the 2021 Mars-Venus Flyby, actively building everything needed for Mars missions, and establishing routine manned access to deep space.

Additionally, the ARM would intrude into what private industries had already been planning. Let's let them do asteroid retrieval and mining, and let NASA concentrate on the giant leaps of pioneering permanent human presences on the moon and Mars.

NASA could and must do far more in the 2020s. The cancelled Constellation Program was designed to start construction of a lunar base starting about 2020. President Bush's greatest mistakes were not making the case to Congress for the proper level of funding, and getting it into space before the end of his term. Had he, we would be ramping up now for American astronauts again landing on the moon before the end of this decade, instead of planning for a single mission of interest in the late 2020s.

However, with early and strong leadership from the next president and sufficient funding from Congress, we can once again set course on bold missions to deep space. The President should send Congress a revised NASA budget suitable for progress towards real lunar and Martian exploration, such as following Neil deGrasse Tyson's call for 1% for space.

America doesn't live in a vacuum, and setting weak and low goals will not stop others from seeking the power, prosperity and glory from becoming the undisputed leader in space.

China is building their SLS-class rocket, the Long March-9 and their Orion-clone capsule, which will be able to take them to the moon and Mars. Count on them to start building their crewed lunar base in the 2020s while we are sill entirely focused on the asteroid boulder.

If China, Russia and perhaps others take all the big "firsts," there will be less desire by the American people and Congress to try to catch up. Our high tech economy will suffer, and space dominated by the tyrannies will become unfriendly for America and commercial ventures.

The next president must immediately issue an executive order to cancel the ARM, and to replace it with the 2021 Mars-Venus flyby, and further direct NASA to develop an 'in this decade' plan and budget to start construction of a permanent crewed Lunar base in the early 2020s, and the Mars landing and exploration in the early 2030s, to be followed by a permanent research base.

Congress' role will be to specify remaining the leader in space exploration is in the national interest, and to authorize the above programs and appropriate sufficient funding. Past efforts often failed because insufficient funds were approved, forcing delays and cutbacks. Those could similarly derail this new space program.

Your role can be to meet or contact presidential candidates, as well as current and prospective Members of Congress in support of restoring our space program to at long last return to the moon, and with lessons learned, make the historic journey to Mars.

The essential components are specific goals and timeframes, deadlines, bold missions which will inspire the American people's support, and sufficient funding to actually bring the dream to reality.

Please call your Senators at 202-224-3121 in support of amending the 2015 NASA Authorization bill to replace the asteroid mission with the 2021 Mars-Venus flyby and a specific roadmap to the moon and Mars.  Note: the NASA Authorization has already passed the House.

It really comes down to this: Should Americans be content spending the next 10-15 years on this one small step, or should we set our sights on another giant leap? A giant leap which could take us to the moon in the early 2020s and to Mars in the early 2030s?

If we as space advocates can together unite on these goals, we will be able to most effectively use the next 15 years to advance our goals in deep space exploration.

(Image credits, Pat Rawlings, NASA)

Espresso in Space!

Grande or Venti?

ISSpresso, the Space Espresso Machine

There's now hope for all spacefaring coffee lovers! Thanks to the Italian Space Agency, Lavazza, and NASA, the Year In Space on the International Space Station​ will go quicker with the first espresso-maker in space, the "ISSpresso."

Read NASA announcement of the news.


It is true that "today's coffee is tomorrow's coffee" on ISS with advanced water recycling technology, and this will be even more the case on missions to Mars, including the proposed 2021 Mars-Venus flyby.
http://www.fragileoasis.org/blog/2012/2/our-fancy-coffee-machine/

Check out the cool design of the zero-G cups that keeps your cuppa in the cup! It uses a unique capillary effect to do the trick, which is far more preferable than bags of water or coffee. The ISSpresso is designed for bags, but perhaps they'll use these cups for a down-to-earth experience.

Alas, ISSpresso is only an experiment, and is scheduled to be returned to earth in September--unless the crew 'forgets' to put it in the returning spacecraft.

Image Credits: Lavazza and Andrew Wollman

Save Opportunity & Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter

Please call Congress to save Opportunity and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). They need YOUR support as the President's budget request has zero money for both amazing missions. Opportunity costs just $14 million a year to keep alive and exploring Mars.

Oppy is entering a fascinating area of very old rocks and will be providing incredible new science. She must not be shut down to save a tiny fraction of the budget. The same goes for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which is also returning valuable science for a few pennies of the NASA budget.

Please call your Senators and Congressman and specify Opportunity and LRO must be specifically included in the budget. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Target members of the Space Subcommittees and Appropriations Committees as well as your own Members.

Read the Planetary Society's excellent analysis, which shows how these two missions passed with high ratings in NASA's Planetary Science Senior Review:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2015/0315-is-opportunity-a-mission-whose-time-has-passed.html

While these small sums do not require cuts elsewhere, were that the case, it would be better to delay or reduce funding for non-----space projects like the expensive new Central Campus and HQ buildings at KSC which will involve demolishing the historic Apollo-era buildings. Save constructing new buildings for a time when we have money to spare.

Join the Space Exploration Alliance's Legislative Blitz

You are invited to join the Mars Society, the Planetary Society, the National Space Society, ExploreMars and other major space advocacy groups in participating in the 2015 Space Exploration Alliance Legislative (SEA) Blitz in Washington, D.C. from February 22-24.

Invite your friends and come join space advocates from around the country to let Congress know that there is strong constituent support for an ambitious space program. You will find this experience to be exciting and rewarding. There will be an information/training session on Sunday, February 22nd, and Congressional visits on Monday, February 23rd and Tuesday, February 24th.

Register Here:
http://www.spaceexplorationalliance.org/blitz/
More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/686839654763566/

If you cannot make it to the event please call your Congressman and Senators on February 23 or 24 and tell them you support space exploration and want space to be a national priority.

• Commentary: The Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration endorses and participates in the SEA Blitz. We encourage every space advocate to take a couple days to go to DC and join the effort to educate Members and staff on the importance of having a bold and growing space program. Space has wide but very shallow support in Congress. Witness the declining (in real dollars) of the NASA budget at the time when China and other nations are dramatically increasing their investments.
  
  Neil deGrasse Tyson has popularized the call for at least 1% for space so we can actually establish bases on the moon and Mars. We should not be content to watch as our budget gets cut and the decisions are which program to cut to spare another, rather than how to best achieve the goals we want and how to accomplish them in years and not decades.
  
  During the SEA Legislative "Blitz," you will have the opportunity to talk to Members of Congress and their staff who are from "non-space" states and districts. They may not be aware of the tremendous benefits the space program has brought to their state or district. As examples; farmers' crop yields rely upon satellite mapping and modern weather forecasts regardless of whether there is space industry in their region, and senior citizens across the country live longer thanks to medical advances developed by the space program. Every state and district therefore really is a "space state and district!"
  
  Beyond the myriad economic, exploration and other direct benefits of the space program, or even our greater goals of colonizing space; there's an often overlooked strategic component: If the US does not continue our historic leadership in space (that means a US human presence on both the moon and Mars), we may well end up with the tyrannies on the world controlling space and denying us access in varying ways.
  
  Space so ruled would be highly unfriendly to commercial space ventures, and if we are to believe China would not exert such control, then they are setting a very poor example in trying to seize the international waters of the South and East China Seas and the islands and territorial waters which belong to other nations in that region.
  
  Space will not automatically remain open to everyone in today's increasingly dangerous world.

New NASA Congressional Committee Chairmen

Many of the 114th Congress Committee and Subcommittee Chairmen of interest for NASA and space have now been selected. 

Senate: Thad Cochran (R-MS) is the new Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) is the Ranking Member. 

John Thune (R-SD) is the new Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Bill Nelson (D-FL) is the Ranking Member. Ted Cruz (R-TX) chairs the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness.

On the House side, the Appropriations Committee chairman remains Hal Rogers (R-KY) and the Ranking Member is Nita Lowey (D-NY). John Culberson (R-TX) replaces great space advocate Frank Wolf.

Lamar Smith (R-TX) remains the Chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Sequestration will Have Large Impact on NASA

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=43367

Sequestration will have a significant impact on NASA Programs with up to 8.5% of the budget lost with across the board cuts.  Congressman Steve Stockman whose district which includes  Johnson Space Center  stated while visiting Mission Control that Obama’s proposed sequester would be disastrous for NASA, which is already his punching bag,” said Stockman. “Not only can you increase NASA funding while balancing the budget, cutting spending, cutting taxes and reducing the debt, it’s the fiscally responsible thing to do. Every dollar spent on NASA produces real value for our economy and our defense.”  “NASA funding fulfills one of the few legitimate functions of government. Friday’s destructive explosion over Russia of a meteor we never saw, and the near-hit by an asteroid, should be a warning to Obama against further cuts to NASA,” said Stockman. “Cuts to NASA jeopardize our safety and security.”

Furthermore, a letter written by NASA administrator to Senator Barbara A. Mikulski which was published on Space Ref.com was in response to the impacts and seriousness of these cuts to NASA Programs.  Our response articulates impacts of sequestration relative to the President's FY 2013 budget request for NASA of $17,711.4 million in direct discretionary funding. NASA estimates that a March 1 sequester applied to the annualized levels in the current FY 2013 Continuing Appropriations Resolution (Section 101, P.L. 112-175) would reduce the total NASA funding level to $16,984.7 million in direct discretionary funding, or $726.7 million less than the President's FY 2013 budget request, and $894.1 million less than the annualized levels in the current FY 2013 Continuing Appropriations Resolution.  The letter continues to breakdown where large cuts will take place with Commercial Crew programs taking the largest cuts.  A $227.8 million sequester impact on Construction and Environmental Compliance and Restoration (CECR)  would have negative impacts of infastructure needed for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle,  Launch Services, Rocket Propulsion Test, 21st Century Launch Complex, Commercial Crew and Cargo, and Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) programs.

Links to Story:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=43367

http://stockman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/stockman-to-visit-jsc-outline-plans-to-stop-sequester-and-boost-nasa