Organizing for America | Ferris Valyn's Obama Space blog: Politics at the International Space Development Conference, 2008

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Politics at the International Space Development Conference, 2008

By Ferris Valyn - Jun 18th, 2008 at 6:25 pm EDT

Also listed in: Aerospace supporters for Obama | Fly Us To The Moon | Space Policy Advisory Group

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Tags: development, NASA, space

Recently, I attended the 2008 International Space Development Conference (ISDC). While there, a number of space issues were discussed, espcially concerning policy. I felt everyone here could benefit from reading about it. Before I go into what happened, with regard to the politics, let me give a short background about ISDC. ISDC is put on every year, for 26 years, by the National Space Society. Its purpose is to promote space development. It brings together scientists, engineers, policy makers, businessmen, even artists and philosophers, to talk about and discuss space development.

With that firmly established, join me on the other side, to talk about some of the political discussions that happened there, this year.

While there were multiple events, the 2 main political events I want to talk about was the Election 2008 Space Panel, and the Space Policy Advisory Group workshop.

Election 2008 Space Panel

This panel, which was broadcast live via C-SPAN, was moderated by CNN anchor Miles O'Brien, and had representatives from the (then) 3 campaigns. These were Lori Garver representing Senator Clinton, Floyd DesChamps representing Senator McCain, and Steve Robinson representing Senator Obama.

I was going to do a formal write-up of what happened, but giving how much time has passed, I'd rather just link to Jeff Foust's piece in the space review, which is fairly well written, and give you my impressions, which btw, will focus largely on Senator Obama, and his representative, Mr. Robinson - I will not be voting for McCain.

The first big impression is that space is still seen as a 3rd tier issue. While Lori Garver, who was representing Senator Clinton was quite knowledgeable about space policy, Mr. DesChamps and Mr. Robinson both did not seem well versed in space policy. I know that Mr. DesChamps is a staffer for Senator McCain, and was a last minute replacement. And Mr. Robison's primary advises Senator Obama on education issues. So, its clear that space still isn't seen as a major issue.

It is clear that Senator Obama (or at least his campaign) still see space as a science and inspiration issue, and nothing else. Mr. Robinson did lay out a vision, which, in theory, I could largely agree with. It consisted of 4 points
1. Build a talent pool of scientists and engineers
2. Create a supportive environment for research and space exploration in both the public and private sector, which would include support for a a new generation of entrepreneurs.
3. Apply science and technology to the challenges we face, and of particular importance, linking human and robotic exploration to the needs of our planet
4. Allow scientists to provide unadulterated expert advice to the government.

While not included in his points, it's also worth noting that Robinson said Senator Obama was strongly opposed to space weaponization.

As I said, this is a vision that, by and large, I believe could make some excellent space policies. I won't deny there are some workforce issues within the Space industry, especially with the upcoming retirement of the Space shuttle. And I know there are larger concerns about the educational future we face. I would argue that this is something that belongs in the education part of his message; however, given Mr. Robinson's background, this isn't a huge issue. The 2nd part of the platform is perfect - this is exactly what I've talked about with regards to space development, and there are a number of ways in which the government can help to accelerate space development. And the third point could form the basis for developing a space resource utilization program (like Space Based Solar Power). And I think we all would like scientists to be able to work and provide data without a political officer. And, while I am not optimistic about stopping space weaponization, I do think it's worth our efforts to try and stop it, provide it doesn't come at the expense of not using space altogether.

The problem, as I see it, is that because space is seen as a third tier issue, Senator Obama hasn't found someone who truly understands the breadth and depth of space policy. For example, when asked about ITAR and export control reforms, arguably one of the biggest strangle holds within the developing space economy, Mr. Robinson answered "No comment". He also continued to argue that besides science, the only thing space provides is inspiration, which lead caused the discussion to move towards a robots vs humans debate, although it didn't quite get there. The fundamental point is that Senator Obama needs to understand that space policy is much bigger than people realize, and he needs to find someone who is really knowledgeable about the broad range of space issues, to advise him.

As for Senator McCain, I also get the impression he hasn't really thought about it - where as Obama sees it through the lens of science, my impression about McCain was that he doesn't really (and hasn't really) viewed it all that much. There did seem to be a little bit of a realization that space was more than science by Mr. Deschamps, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be good space policy.

Also, I want to mention the Clinton Representative - Lori Graver is a former Nasa Associate Administrator, and during the 2004 election, she was an adviser to the Kerry campaign, with regards to space policy. While I don't I'd agree with her on every issue, I do believe that the Obama campaign would be well served by bringing her in from the Clinton campaign.

Finally, I want to talk about the forum, and the moderator, Miles O'Brien. I did feel that Miles didn't push nearly as hard as he should've on questions, and let far to many things slide. I really wish he would've pushed to get more answers - I felt that the continued focus on pure science and space only as an inspiration didn't help. I also was disappointed that there was no audience participation - in many of the panels at ISDC, panelists would take a few questions from the audience - for this panel, however, no questions were asked from the audience.

I should add one final point - while I was disappointed with Mr. O'Brien and his questions, since I felt he could've really pushed much better, he did redeem himself in my eyes, after Burt Rutan turned part of his speech at the gala dinner into a global warming deniers event, among other things - afterwards Miles challenged him on his knowledge of the facts. Just because you have a good grasp of designing and building aircrafts (and spacecrafts), doesn't mean you have a good grasp on climate change.

The Space Policy Advisory Group Meet-up
There was actually 2 meet-ups through the Space Policy Advisory Group, the first one was merely a meet and greet, with alcohol. However, the second meet-up really turned into a workshop, in terms of helping to get the Senator elected, and raising space as an issue. It was a great opportunity to meet people who support Senator Obama, and spaceflight - we had a variety of people, some concerned about national security, some concerned about space commercialization, Nasa policy, and so on. The backgrounds of people were also varied - we had people from the X Prize foundation, the Personal Spaceflight federation, the FAA, Nasa, and so on.

The results of that meeting were a list of 3 things we have to do:
1. Get Senator Obama elected
2. Raise the importance of space, so the Senator will develop a broad space policy platform,
3. Help to insure that we get good space policy.

The first of our task, getting Obama elected, is pretty straight forward - volunteering and the like.

As for our second task, raising the importance of space, a number of people, including myself, offered to blog about the importance of space. Also, people talked about trying to submit papers/suggestions to the campaign, which will also happen, probably in the fairly near future. And finally we talked about doing a fundraiser.

Because of that, I am proud to announce that the Space Policy Advisory Group is doing an online fundraiser, right now, and you can donate - everyone here realizes the importance of small dollar donations, so please, if you can, donate to Senator Obama through the Space Policy Advisory group - and encourage your friends and family to also do so.

Also, since the meet-up, an online petition has been started to encourage Senator Obama to develop a sound space policy. Please go over and sign it.

Finally, with regard to specific policy suggestions - while there was some discussion about specific policies, by and large, we stayed away from that - because this was the first real meeting, we didn't want it to descend into a long winded discussion about policy, and not figure out how we can help Senator Obama, as well as help the industry.

All in all, the political discussions at ISDC were very good, and I am more hopeful about getting Senator Obama to develop good space policy. Although I have written pieces critical of Senator Obama, and his proposed space policy, I truly do want Senator Obama to be elected, and I do believe he can be persuaded to have good space policy - its that reason alone that I have donated money to Senator Obama, through the Space Policy Advisory Group.

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