Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

364 reMeMberINg the SpaCe age
of course, criticism of the space exploration initiatives of NaSa have
taken myriad turns within the space community itself, as losers in the debate
question the course taken. because NaSa pursued the Space Shuttle program
in the aftermath of apollo it was unable to undertake other projects that might
have been more fruitful, the argument goes. there is no question that this is
true, and usually critiques along these lines take one of three forms. the frst
is a criticism that NaSa spent the last 30 years in earth orbit and it could
have—indeed should have—used the same funding that it received for the
Space Shuttle and Space Station to return to the Moon or to explore Mars.
robert Zubrin, a persistent advocate for a mission to Mars, made this
case in testimony before the u.S. Senate in 2003. he said:
In today’s dollars, NaSa[’s] average budget from 1961-1973
was about $17 billion per year. this is only 10% more than
NaSa’s current budget. to assess the comparative productivity
of the apollo Mode with the Shuttle Mode, it is therefore
useful to compare NaSa’s accomplishments between
1961-1973 and 1990-2003, as the space agency’s total expenditures
over these two periods were equal.
he concluded: “Comparing these two records, it is difcult to avoid the
conclusion that NaSa’s productivity in both missions accomplished and
technology development during its apollo Mode was at least ten times greater
than under the current Shuttle Mode.” 31
a second criticism of “paths not taken” comes from representatives of the
scientifc community and usually involves questioning the role of humans in
space at the expense of science missions. university of Iowa astrophysicist and
discoverer of the radiation belts surrounding earth that bears his name, James
a. van allen, never believed that human spacefight was worth the expense. In
2004 he remarked, “risk is high, cost is enormous, science is insignifcant. Does
anyone have a good rationale for sending humans into space?” 32 undoubtedly,
large numbers of scientifc missions could have been developed had funding
used for human missions been used instead to fund other types of scientifc
eforts. but it is not a zero-sum-game, and there is little reason to believe that
31. testimony of robert Zubrin to the Senate Commerce Committee, october 29, 2003, p.
2, available online at http://www.marssociety.org/content/Zubrin102903.PDF (accessed february
26, 2006).
32. James a. van allen, “Is human Spacefight obsolete?” Issues in Science and Technology, vol. 20
(Summer 2004), available online at http://www.issues.org/20.4/p_van_allen.html (accessed august
3, 2004).