ProSpace March Storm 2010 starts this Sunday, February 28th in Washington, DC! If you plan to attend but have not sent in your registration, please do so by visiting the March Storm Registration Page

ProSpace is proud to present the 2010 Citizen’s Space Agenda. Teams of dedicated volunteers will brief Congressional offices on these vital issues that will determine the future of commercial space development for our Nation.

The theme of this year’s agenda is “New Directions, New Jobs.” With this agenda ProSpace calls upon Congress to make both the technology investments and regulatory reforms needed to promote a vibrant and growing commercial space industry. These actions will promote the creation of thousands of new high-paying jobs here in the United States.

2010 Citizen’s Space Agenda Action Items:

ITAR reform:

• Support an addition to the Senate version of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act: the authority to remove widely available satellite systems and components from the ITAR list.
• Make certain that the bill presented to both the House and Senate for final passage retains this provision that is so vital to American international competitiveness.

Exploration:

• Require NASA to focus its human space flight development programs on technologies and processes designed for travel in space beyond low earth orbit.
• Support robust funding for space exploration technology demonstration projects.

Commercial Services:

• Support the transition to commercial crew and cargo services for the International Space Station.

Annual ProSpace Meeting:

This year, the annual ProSpace general meeting will take place after dinner Monday, March 1st, from 6-8 pm at the Capitol City Brewing Company near Union Station. Dinner’s fixed price menu costs $25 per person, drinks and tip extra. To attend the dinner, please RSVP Frank Johnson as soon as possible. Joining the dinner is not required for attending the annual meeting.

ProSpace March Storm Hotel Information

Questions concerning ProSpace March Storm may be forwarded to Frank Johnson at fjohnson@prospace.org

I’ve been thinking about Rick’s post here on how “the agency which is supposed to be challenging the edge is taking so much heat for trying something new” and I’m wondering if we aren’t helping our opponents by accepting that there is anything “new” involved in the proposed NASA budget.

Think about it.  The “untried” use of commercial providers is the tried and true, normal, way that government interacts with the private sector.  The “groundbreaking” emphasis on developing “game changing technologies” is a return to what NACA did until the 1950s.  For nearly 50 years NASA has been trying something new and different that didn’t work.  They now want to return to doing things using proven, well understood, successful methodologies.

The military has relied on American merchant seamen since John Paul Jones.  Except for a few bigwigs, government employees go about their business flying on commercial airliners.  Government buys cars and trucks from the same companies as everybody else.  Even some incredibly specialized pieces of equipment, like the E-3 Sentry AWACS, are modified versions of civilian products.  While there are certainly some equipment the government buys that are unique to their use, most such things are weapons systems with no civilian analogue.   In the instance of space launch the US military mostly uses two systems that are also used by the private sector, the Delta IV and the Atlas V.  These are systems with a fantastic track record and their builders say they can modify them to fulfill NASA’s requirements.  Why not take them at their word?

From 1915 through 1958 the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) promoted military and civilian aviation through applied research that looked beyond current needs.  Using modern terms the NACA concentrated on developing technology that was both generic and pre-competitive.  The result was a long list of breakthroughs that pushed the limits, advancing aeronautic technology and making America the leader in aircraft of all types.  Within a few years after the NACA became NASA all this changed.  The race to the Moon put technology development that couldn’t be ready in time on hold.  Fifty years later they are still on hold.  All that the proposed budget does in this area is ask that NASA return to its roots.

It seems to me that there is nothing new here at all.  The proposed NASA budget is a very conservative document, embracing ideas and techniques that have been demonstrated to work many times and in many places and wants to end some newfangled 20^th century ideas that have failed many times and in many places.

Isn’t it ironic that the agency which is supposed to be challenging the edge is taking so much heat for trying something new? I find myself teetering between laughter,  slipping into a Lewis Black moment and fear that this tiny step towards a pro-frontier space policy will be slaughtered the same way so many good ideas are in Washington and for the same reasons: It threatens the cash flow to entrenched interests, and the control of those who are used to calling the shots. None of which have anything to do with our success or failure as a nation in the areas of exploration, science, job creation or lest we forget, opening the grandest frontier of all time…

Fact: The Constellation plan was a dead end, and would have resulted in a disastrous failure to return to the Moon, let alone put humans on Mars. That was an illusion, powerpoint pioneering at its best, smoke and mirrors at its worst. Back in the nineteen sixties even Von Braun called for the US to build infrastructure in LEO lest we not be able to sustain or conquest of space. He was over ruled in favour of a race to the Moon in the form of Apollo and in the end we got flags and footprints on the Moon and a generation that so can’t believe we aren’t still there that they question if we ever went. And NASA was going to do it again.

Thank god that this time they were stopped. For now at least. And as weird as it may have seemed just a year or two ago, I find myself and many in the Space Frontier movement on the side of the agency’s leadership. Strange days indeed my friends…but allies we are, and prepare we must.

Now we wait for the counter attack as parochial NASA leaders more concerned about the “welfare” of their own centres than the above mentioned goals will now conspire with members of congress who have vested interests in the status quo and their corporate donors and either do not understand that this new direction will mean more jobs, more missions and more overall good stuff for everyone or simply do not care.

And it is coming. Don’t doubt it. Behind the snow piles in Washington the forces of darkness are gathering and working on all new sets of powerpoints. The attack will come in the form of trying to cast doubts on people, companies and vehicles that represent change, and a push for a “new and improved” giant launch vehicle that will be touted as a minimally evolved use of the existing space shuttle architecture.

Let the dance begin! A battle of maneuver it will be indeed. The more weak kneed folks at NASA and the White House politicos who don’t give a dam about space may well be moved to support this new counter program to placate the congressional delegations from Florida and Alabama in particular. After all, one Alabama Senator can trump a whole passle of forces by simply holding up a budget…(or can he? see note about Maryland below.)

The Arizona Sub-Committee Chairwoman whose husband helped develop the now discredited “stick” known as Ares 1 will also weigh in – although with that program gone, she might be able to see the light that like ex-military pilots now flying business aircraft and airliners her husband and his ex-astronaut friends will have at least a chance to fly again if the commercial option to LEO survives and virtually None whatsoever if it does not.

The Texas and California delegations will at first be tempted to support the HLV concept, but with a bit less gusto, as California has the innovative Ames Space facility and of course JPL – which is going to win in the form of more funds and chances to fly its robotic exploration missions and is home to some rising star commercial firms as is Texas. Also, Johnson Space Center in Houston is a bit more of a mission oriented facility (ie – what you do when you get somewhere) than a launch vehicle design bureau like Marshall or flight facility like Kennedy. At some point its people will come to realize if they want to roll out their projects on the Moon and Mars they better line up behind Mr. Bolden and the New Space Age.

And with any luck a couple of powerhouses may step up to save the day, such as the nice lady from Maryland who may recognize that a win for the dinosaurs is a loss for her own state, especially her own Mid Atlantic Spaceport and its potential commercial spaceflight customers – ironically in competition with that same Florida launch facility being protected from evil commercial alternatives by their own senator….hmnnn…irony…hmnnnn.

And this little internet of ours will be flooded with debates, arguments and lies and half truths and of course my own complete truths. Let loose the blogs of war!

My words and wisdom aside, we will see what happens to this bold new initiative in the coming months. Will it “fly” or will it flounder. Will the White House and those with Vision stand their ground or will they run away, content to say they tried. Will one or two powerful Senators stand in the way of this attempt to reforge our space program into something exciting and viable and in the name of short term protectionism slam down the gavel on creativity to protect a socialist dinosaur, or will common sense and the true American ideals of enterprise and creativity win the day?

Interestingly, and something that should give our friends on the other side pause – it is important to note that in the end the frontier is going to be opened, and the New Space revolution is going to occur with or without NASA on board. Be it China or India or a huge fleet of American commercial rockets and hotels and rovers, and powersats and miners and labs and more… The real question is whether this once proud icon of American guts and glory gets it an gets on board and helps us do it by getting out there and blazing trails rather than trying to design and build the trucks and vehicles that will travel them, or is left behind on its own decaying launch pad.

I hope wisdom prevails…as this could be a lot of fun!

The proposed budget from the Obama administration is the most exciting and promising thing to happen to NASA in several generations.  If adopted by Congress it will represent the reversal of a policy that has kept humans locked in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) since December 19^th, 1972.  The plan to enable, rather than compete against, private sector efforts, coupled with a return to NACA-like technology development would make the US government a serious player in opening the space frontier, joining dozens of NewSpace companies who are already on the job.

By admitting the failure of the latest paper rockets, the administration is freeing up funds to do many things that may actually work.  Some of those things have long been a part of the NewSpace agenda, commercial crew and cargo, discovery and exploration of Near Earth Objects, orbital fuel depots and breakthrough technology research.  I’m here offering up one more that screams for attention.

One year ago today, on February 10, 2009, Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collided, creating thousands of pieces of orbital debris and ending forever the belief that governments and corporations can carelessly discard retired satellites and junk in the “Big Sky.”   The era of the Big Sky was characterized by the idea that orbital space is so large that the probability that any two object’s orbits will intersect was quite small.  As early as 1978 Donald J. Kessler observed that the odds of collision over time were significant and that each collision produced additional objects that would increase the rate of future collisions leading to an exponential growth in the collision rate and debris population.  Today we know that this “Kessler Syndrome” is not simply a theoretical possibility—if we don’t take action soon it will happen, making the use of LEO impractical for centuries to come.  This would be a nightmare for everybody who relies on LEO for both military and civilian remote sensing.   It would end the International Space Station or any other LEO space station.  Kessler’s scary syndrome would make getting to higher orbits much riskier and costly.

(I need to address a bugaboo that I’ve heard several times.  A debris field in LEO, even a very dense debris field, does not keep us trapped inside Earth’s atmosphere.  No amount of debris would prevent sending rockets through so long as we move though quickly and don’t mind losing some of them.  The risk could conceivably get so high that few people would be willing to risk it.  But high value cargo and people willing to take the chance will get through.)

So here we are a year after the first big, accidental, orbital crackup and you might think that efforts are underway to deal aggressively with the problem.  Wrong.  The last year has seen a slight increase in awareness of the problem, some papers published, a technical conference and little else.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I am not calling for some big, expensive, technology program to deal with orbital debris.  All that is needed is some leadership and a little money to spend on getting lawyers, diplomats, economists, military planners and a few politicians focused on designing a set of carrots and sticks that both minimize the creation of new debris and incentivizes private sector efforts to clean up the highest risk bits and pieces.  This is a problem that can be solved, so long as we act before it gets out of control.

Now that our dreams are starting to become reality, let’s not let them be thwarted by a nightmare.

Here’s more information on the subject:

• A paper: Legal and Economic Implications of Orbital Debris Removal
• Some Charts: Legal and Economic Implications of Orbital Debris Removal: A Free Market Approach
• An op-ed: Beware Of Space Junk: Global Warming Isn’t the Only Major Environmental Problem

Over the last week or so a number of people, including me, have pointed out that much of the dissembling about the proposed NASA budget is being done by people with a financial and/or political interest in maintaining the status quo.  It has been particularity disturbing how often those representing vested interests fail to disclose their relationship.  (With that in mind I am explicitly disclosing that the Space Frontier Foundation is in the business of advancing NewSpace through public education and totally dependent on donations from people who, for a variety of reasons, want the same.)

I’m troubled, however, by some in our midst who have been painting all of our opponents with this same broad brush.

I want to make it clear that not all the people trying to save to Ares I have a vested interest, or are shilling for those with a vested interested.  In the space arena there is a significant minority of honest, well-meaning people who genuinely believe that government must be in charge when doing complicated things.  For them it is inconceivable that the private sector would produce safe products unless the strong hand of government forces them to do so.  It’s fine for the means of production to be in private hands, so long everything is under firm government control.   In other fields these people would be called socialists, or more accurately national socialists.  For historical reasons in the space field they are called  Von Braunian, after the German-American rocket man.

These Von Braunian Socialists are wrong and disconnected from American realities.  They are not liars and do not deserve having their honesty called into question.

The NewSpace 2010 Conference is set for July 23-25 at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. The Space Frontier Foundation’s annual conference is an opportunity for NewSpace industry leaders to celebrate the rapid progress made in this field, while exchanging knowledge and preparing for the obstacles ahead.

“For twenty-one years, the Space Frontier Foundation has been the vanguard of the NewSpace movement, working to change the economics of space,” says Foundation Director Berin Szoka. “Our annual NewSpace conference will once again bring together a unique mix of revolutionary space entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, engineers, and space policy leaders to explore the opportunities and challenges of opening the space frontier to human settlement.”

Coverage and interest in the entrepreneurial space industry has skyrocketed recently and, as a nod to this momentum, the auspicious theme of this year’s conference is ‘Ready for Take-Off.’ The event will highlight the emergence of a variety of NewSpace markets as companies shift from theoretical concepts to functional realities. Programming and networking receptions will cover pressing topics, including the utilization of suborbital vehicles, development of fuel depots, optimization of space prizes, technology pathways to profitable space solar power, and the financial benefits of a thriving presence in space.

Friday’s panels will expound upon ‘The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat: The Business of NewSpace,’ while Saturday’s discussion will be about ‘Pushing the Limit: The Challenges Facing NewSpace Today.’ Sunday will close the conference with a look ‘Beyond the Horizon: NewSpace and New Worlds of Tomorrow.’ All panels will be lead by pioneers in the space industry, with emphasis on encouraging frank discussions.

For more information, visit the NewSpace 2010 Homepage and or RSVP on Facebook today.

Discounted early-bird registration for the conference will soon be available at the NewSpace 2010 Registration Page, which will also provide information about the group rate at the Domain Hotel in nearby Sunnyvale, California.

Press correspondents interested in covering the conference should contact Press Manager Marimikel Charrier at press@spacefrontier.org.

Companies that would like to host an exhibit at the conference may contact Exhibits Director Brian Young at brian.young@spacefrontier.org.

Much of the mainstream response to Constellation’s cancellation and replacement by more effective spending reads like everything was going honky dory with Constellation in the first place. The reality is that this porker is already many years behind schedule and well along the path to failure. Rescuing Constellation would require dramatically increasing NASA’s budget and cutting out many of the other things NASA does. The first is improbably, to say the least, in the current environment. The second costs way more jobs than cancelling Constellation does and punishes success rather than failure.

All that the administration is proposing is that we recognize reality and refocus on things that might actually work. It spends less money and creates more jobs! What’s not to like?

If you care about a free and open frontier in space, are a US citizen, over 18 and can possibly get to DC next week Take Back Space is a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring just a bit of reality about space to Capitol Hill. Don’t miss it.

“Take Back Your Space Program!” Will Fight For Reforms on Capitol Hill

The Space Frontier Foundation called on Congress to back the courageous leadership of President Obama and NASA Administrator Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden as they rescue the US space program from certain failure in its ill-conceived effort to return to the Moon. The Administration is charting a new course based on common sense and a more normal relationship between the government and private sectors that will not only save billions of dollars but will help the US establish a NewSpace industry and eventually human settlements on the Moon, Mars and beyond.

“Everything we know of the plan so far is great!” said the Foundation’s Rick Tumlinson. “This new path will open space faster, cheaper and in a way that will pole vault US companies back to the front of the trillion dollar global space race. It will allow NASA to get back to the job of exploration – and yes, even return to the Moon, go to Mars and all the rest – but now we will be able to go to stay, and make it pay.”

The Foundation believes this new plan will help NASA do more at lower cost while transforming the US space industry back into the global force it once was. The Foundation asks: Do we cling to thousands of 20th century government-funded jobs for a few more years or enable millions of private sector 21st century jobs?  The role of government in a free society is to enable and regulate the private sector, not to compete with it – as has been the case so far in many areas of space, especially transportation.

“Government astronauts should not be driving trucks in Low Earth Orbit or on the Moon,” continued Tumlinson.  ”They should be the vanguard of solar-system exploration, constantly looking over the next horizon, in the tradition of great American explorers like Lewis and Clark or the inspirational heroes of fiction like James T. Kirk – with the rest of us following and creating new wealth and opportunity. Maybe now, after spending decades literally going around in circles, America can pursue its true destiny: To boldly go where no one has gone before.”

The Foundation recently announced “Take Back Your Space Program!,” a year-long campaign in which citizens will visit Congressional leaders to advocate for policies that advance a free and open space frontier.

“Contrary to the hype from vested interests, these changes will help us take back our space program, resulting in more jobs, rather than fewer, in the aerospace industry,” said project manager Mike Heney.  “This is a major turning point, the chance of a lifetime to have an impact on America’s civil space policy.  The time is now to make your voice heard.  Don’t miss it.”

“Take Back Your Space Program!” begins with First Flight, scheduled for the week of February 7-12, 2010. During First Flight and later events, volunteers from across the US will visit Congressional offices to express their support for the bold leadership of President Obama and NASA Administrator Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden.

Citizens who want to help open the space frontier are invited to join the group for First Flight. All volunteers must be US citizens 18 years or older. Volunteers must commit to attend training on Sunday, Feb. 7 and participate in at least two of Congressional office visits during the week. For more information and registration, visit the “Take Back Your Space Program!” website.

Space Frontier Foundation Applauds NASA’s Bold New Direction [pdf]

This comes from an email exchange between members of a google discussion group called the Space Renaissance Initiative over the old story of industry and greed vs. native culture and respect for living systems portrayed in “Avatar“.

This sort of discussion highlights exactly the role of groups like the SRI.

I am not sure if anyone on this list has read any of my stuff on this subject or seen me talk about it, but my take and the long time position of many in the Space Frontier Foundation is this (though I only speak for myself – as its Founder):

The goal of what I call the “frontier movement” (“human space settlement” movement) is to expand the domain of life beyond this one world and to carry the seeds of life and human civilization to worlds now dead.

All previous discussions between left and right, industrialists or environmentalists do not apply. This is a new conversation.

This is the nature of a paradigm shift. The old arguments fall apart. They were based on a world view that does not apply in the new reality. And do not misunderstand, a paradigm shift at the level of Copernicus is exactly what we are engaged upon.

For the First time in human history the expansion of our civilization will not mean an attack on the living biosphere – but instead its expansion.

Think about it.

Look, I used to go door to door for Greenpeace in college, I am a tree hugger, I am also (or was) a member of the NRA here in the states, I am also a founder of a couple of NewSpace firms, and a supporter of industrial development in space. A profile of someone like me might be found in a good Robert Heinlein novel…and of many others I know in this movement, so far as the real players and movers go (those bending metal and flying real rocketships and doing the heavy lifting in policy and industry to make this dream happen.)

And here is where it fits:

I would rather see us mine a dead rock hurtling through space for our industrial materials than rip the heart out of a living mountain ecosystem here on Earth, rather catch the rays of the sun in space and beam them to the surface than gouge coal from our planet and burn it into the atmosphere (there is NO clean coal technology) rather build new cities at L5 or the asteroid belt than corrupt the last “sink” we have in the oceans by trying to colonize there…or anywhere else on this planet. There Are no more viable human frontiers here. We met ourselves coming the other way…it is done. But in the big picture it is only just begun.

We are the seed carriers of Gaia. Not the destroyers of new worlds. IF we pay attention, IF we learn. If we apply the wisdom of so much destruction wrought by our ancestors until this time and do things differently in space.

Space is infinite…and so are its resources. One of the points missed in the movie is how silly it would be to go down to such a planetary surface to mine what must occur in free space nearby…and how obscene it would be to do so by trampling over another civilization given the relative rarity of intelligent life (yes – it is rare…and I don’t just mean here where I live in Hollywood!) In fact, the film is an old paradigm overly on a new paradigm question…just how will we treat any life we meet on our way out? And it doesn’t work, except that it represents a truth that has been valid here and therefore audiences who are unaware of our new “multi-worldview” can relate to it. But it won’t on the new frontier – if we succeed in making sure the human expansion into space is done right.

For example, I believe we should implant into our movement a Prime Directive that states if we find a world with indigenous life we do not damage it and go around it.  There can be arguments made that we may live there as guests etc. if it can be done harmoniously. But we do not mine or industrialize such places. Again, all we need can be found and built in space itself. We need not even live on planetary surfaces if we don’t want to. Although I also believe at some point we will be able to and should terraform dead worlds.

In the meantime we treat this world as the absolutely precious jewel it is, for as far as we Know (not wish or hope but Know as in Can be Proven) this little bubble is the Only planet carrying life. (Yes, I want to find ET. Yes, statistically it would seem there are other worlds with life. But empirically speaking this One is the only One we Know of that has it, and you don’t bet the future of the only living world on a hope there are others in case we screw this one up.)

We are embarked on a New beginning. A new chance to re-invent ourselves as a species and our relationship to what life is left on this rather ravaged planet. Our movement can be the harbinger of a that new relationship.

To save life, to free life, to carry the seeds of life to worlds now dead.

Now for me that makes it worth getting up in the morning. It is indeed my faith, my theology and my quest.

I hope it is yours….as this transformation is just barely begun to begin…. and we will need All hands.”

“Take Back Your Space Program!” Will Fight For Reforms on Capitol Hill

The Space Frontier Foundation today praised the White House’s decision to cancel NASA’s failed Ares rocket programs and instead invest in private enterprise systems as “inspirational” and “a giant leap in the right direction.”

“The reforms announced yesterday fix some of the worst errors of the Bush Vision of Space Exploration,” said Foundation chairman Bob Werb. “More than that, they make NASA exciting and relevant again. Canceling the expensive, ill-fated Ares 1 rocket opens the door for private enterprise to create a safe, reliable and low-cost commercial spaceflight industry, with government as a customer and partner instead of a competitor.”

The Space Frontier Foundation has been fighting to kill Ares I for years.  We predicted this disaster in 2006 , put out press releases, op-eds and worked with our many friends inside NASA, Congress, and both large and small NewSpace companies.

“Our Mind the Space Gap campaign emphasized that Ares was a boondoggle that guaranteed sending more taxpayer money to Russia to pay for Astronaut visits to a space station we mostly paid for,” continued Werb.  “Now the NewSpace industry must step up and fill the Gap, creating jobs and innovation here in America.”

“Finally, America’s space agency is starting to behave like it belongs in a capitalist country,” Werb added.  “Charlie Bolden and Lori Garver are showing faith in free enterprise and we will not disappoint them.”

The Space Frontier Foundation recently announced “Take Back Your Space Program!,” a year-long campaign in which citizens will visit their representatives in Congress to advocate for policies that help open the space frontier.

“Since Congress recently attempted to tie President Obama’s hands and prevent him from changing Bush’s Moon program in any way, it’s essential that the American people urge legislators to support these reforms and stop any further waste of money on Ares ASAP,” said project manager Mike Heney. “This turkey is never going to fly and we should stop throwing good money after bad.”

“Take Back Your Space Program” begins with First Flight, scheduled for the week of February 7-12, 2010.

Citizens who want to help open the space frontier are invited to join the group for First Flight. All volunteers must be US citizens 18 years or older. Volunteers must commit to attend a training on Sunday, Feb. 7 and participate in at least two Congressional office visits during the week. For more information and registration, visit the Take Back Your Space Program website.

Space Frontier Foundation Praises Death Sentence for Ares [pdf]