NASA V2.0

President Obama's speech yesterday at NASA could be described as "a little everything for everyone." He promised manned trips to Mars. He promised a bigger budget. He promised research into advanced propulsion. He promised robotic exploration of other planets. He promised new jobs. He promised old ones could be spared.

Overall though, I liked the tone of his speech. Assuming manned space missions are required, due to political wrangling and the fact that I'm simply not in charge, then developing the technologies to go to Mars while skipping return missions to the Moon makes a lot of sense. The President had this to say:

Now, I understand that some believe that we should attempt a return to the surface of the Moon first, as previously planned. But I just have to say pretty bluntly here: We’ve been there before. Buzz has been there. There’s a lot more of space to explore, and a lot more to learn when we do. So I believe it’s more important to ramp up our capabilities to reach -- and operate at -- a series of increasingly demanding targets, while advancing our technological capabilities with each step forward.

The President is imply here and elsewhere that recreating the 60's isn't really giving NASA a goal worthy of its potential. Mars, on the other hand, he finds worthy.

By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it.

This, along with many other Obama Administration strategies implies the following: he is committed to goals that may not come to fruition during his Presidency. This suggests a deep, understated patience, and a hard-to-ignore altruism that idealists are drawn to.

Now, while I am no fan of manned spaceflight, my basic argument against it is that current propulsion schemes are too inefficient, and that without a an advanced method of getting around the cosmos very fast, it is a waste of time and money to send astronauts up to do what robots could do much more cheaply. Obama dropped this little trinket in my lap though, and I was simply floored:

But I want to repeat -- I want to repeat this: Critical to deep space exploration will be the development of breakthrough propulsion systems and other advanced technologies. So I’m challenging NASA to break through these barriers. And we’ll give you the resources to break through these barriers. And I know you will, with ingenuity and intensity, because that’s what you’ve always done.

I dunno who told Mr. Obama to say that, whether he thought that gem up himself, Holdren directed him to do so, or one of his writers felt that way, but it is the quintessential argument I have been making (doggedly) for the last 2 years, and I felt as though a weight were lifted off my shoulders when the President tasked NASA (with promises of funding) to find faster ways of traveling to and fro in zero-G.

All in all, I liked it. I like this President, I like the way he thinks. I like that he thinks.


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