Space policy made a pretty decent splash at Netroots Nation. We had an excellent panel on space policy, and an excellent platform meeting. For those of you who don't remember, we had Andrew Hoppin moderating, and Chris Bowers, Lori Garver, Patricia Grace Smith, and George Whitesides all speaking. You can about the panelists here.
Join me over the fold to read, and see it
Hey Everyone,
I figured now would be a good time to remind everyone (again) about some upcoming space events, that would be worth going to. We have a couple of major events this week, as well as future events upcoming. I promise reports to any and all I attend, and I suggest that you attend as well
This is being re-posted from my diaries over at dailykos
In many of my past diaries, I commented on Senator Obama, and his lack of a space policy, and the concern that he is anti human spaceflight. These diaries have ranged from long explanations, to something that was probably close to a rant.
Dear Senator Obama,
It is clear, through your statements, that you have questions about what role human spaceflight can and does play on our society. You have said that you want to have a full evaluation, and have a clear understanding about how and where we can have the most impact in our spending on space.
Part of the problem is how we've interacted with space, and how we view it. For a long time, space has been viewed as being beyond the reach of the average person, and that it can only provide us more scientific knowledge.
However, there is growing evidence that this is about to change, and that properly harnessed, space can have an incredibly positive effect on society - it can help with our economy, and it can help provide us with clean, cheap energy.
It is for this reason I have written these essays - so you can understand how human spaceflight can have a beneficial impact on society, why the time is now that it can have such a beneficial impact, and how best to capitalize on this.
In this second essay, I talk about the economy, and suborbital space businesses.
Cross posted at dailykos
As you probably know, Senator Obama was endorsed by the Houston Chronicle. However, in their endorsement, the Chronicle responded to a statement from Obama, and added a caveat to their endorsement. What was the comment, and what was the subsequent caveat? Come over the fold, and see
Cross-posted at Dailykos
So, those who were/are my regular readers (as well as some Obama supporters who aren't regular readers) know that I have been pushing for Senator Obama to have a space policy, after he released his educational plan around Thanksgiving. Well, in the last few weeks, the Obama campaign has begun to rectify that. First, on Jan 2nd, Lisa Ellman, Obama's policy director, issued the following statement,
Obama believes we should continue developing the next generation of space vehicles, and complete the international space station. While Obama would delay plans to return to moon and push on to mars, Obama would continue unmanned missions, and use NASA to monitor the forces and effects of climate change, support scientific research, and maintain surveillance to strengthen national security. Obama also believes we need to keep weapons out of space.
And on Thursday, this week, the Senator released a full policy statement. Come over the fold, and I'll give you my thoughts
Senator, recently you released your education proposal. To provide part of the money for funding it, you propose to delay the Constellation program. Now, Constellation has some serious flaws, as anyone who looks at it will tell you – Ares I is a complete waste, and there are serious issues with Orion, and Ares V as well. That said, if you are going to be pulling money from Nasa, and spaceflight in general, on a basic fairness, you need to tell us what your vision is for spaceflight in general (and Nasa in particular).
There is more on the other side
