{"id":4216,"date":"2013-08-30T04:36:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T04:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=4216"},"modified":"2013-08-30T15:07:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T15:07:00","slug":"space-policy-roundup-aug-30-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=4216","title":{"rendered":"Space policy roundup &#8211; Aug.30.13 [Update]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some recent space policy related items :<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/science\/space\/nasa\/space-experts-nasa-is-dangerously-adrift-15864948?src=soc_twtr\" target=\"_d\">Space Experts: NASA Is Dangerously Adrift &#8211; Popular Mechanics<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacepolicyonline.com\/news\/logsdon-and-pace-criticize-lack-of-white-house-leadership-on-nasa#.Uh_7_KcOrcU.twitter\" target=\"_d\">Logsdon and Pace Criticize Lack of White House Leadership on NASA, Say Agency is Adrift &#8211; spacepolicyonline.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/selenianboondocks.com\/2013\/08\/yhabft-rd-180-sales-ban-rumor-a-com-and-fy11-budget-request-hlv-propulsion\/\" target=\"_d\">YHABFT: RD-180 Sales Ban Rumor, A-Com, and FY11 Budget Request HLV Propulsion &#8211; Selenian Boondocks<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridatoday.com\/proart\/20130829\/columnists0205\/308280058\/guest-column-nasa-lacks-vision?pagerestricted=1\" target=\"_d\">Guest column: NASA lacks vision- Florida Today<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thespacereview.com\/article\/2357\/1\" target=\"_d\">Gambling with a Space Fence: <em>An analysis of the decision to shut down the Air Force Space Surveillance Fence<\/em> &#8211; The Space Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Update<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/spaceksc.blogspot.com\/2013\/08\/drift-or-sanity.html\" target=\"_d\">Drift or Sanity &#8211; Space KSC<\/a> &#8211; Stephen C. Smith responds to the comments by Scott Pace and John Logsdon reported on in the Pop Mech and SpacePolicyOnline items above and the following Florida Today article.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridatoday.com\/article\/20130830\/SPACE\/308300016\/Experts-Drift-plaguing-NASA\" target=\"_d\">Experts: &#8216;Drift&#8217; is plaguing NASA: Human spaceflight not a foregone conclusion in future, prof says &#8211; Florida Today<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>See also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/greg-autry\/the-cold-war-returns-to-s_b_3838479.html\" target=\"_d\">The Cold War Returns to Space &#8211; Greg Autry\/Huffington Post <\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Oddly, while the White House has been a strong advocate for privatization in space, some Republican Senators and Members of Congress still envision America&#8217;s future in space as looking more like the Postal Service or Amtrak. They&#8217;ve subverted CCiCap and its predecessors by diverting funding to an old school, nationalized space program known as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacepolitics.com\/2013\/01\/30\/shelby-vows-to-protect-the-sls\/\" target=\"_hplink\">Space Launch System<\/a> (SLS), designed to eventually carry astronauts to Mars or the asteroids. This giant launch vehicle is not well suited for primary the job at hand &#8211; delivering Americans to the ISS and satellites to Low Earth Orbit. More recently the Capitol Hill opponents of New Space have moved to force these entrepreneurial firms into the same <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacepolitics.com\/2013\/08\/01\/debating-schedule-versus-competition-for-commercial-crew\/\" target=\"_hplink\">Federal Acquisition Regulations<\/a> (FAR) model that has corrupted big government aerospace projects for years. All of this delays America&#8217;s return to space in a blatant effort to protect socialized space jobs in Alabama and Texas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Neil deGreasse Tyson says Elon Musk can&#8217;t get to Mars:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/neil-degrasse-tyson-elon-musk-spacex-2013-8\" target=\"_d\">Neil deGrasse Tyson On Elon Musk SpaceX &#8211; Business Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are several factors that Tyson is overlooking:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Musk is saying that Mars can only be affordable for private entities if the costs are drastically lowered.<\/li>\n<li>Musk&#8217;s goal is for SpaceX to achieve drastically lower costs by developing fully, rapidly reusable launch vehicles.<\/li>\n<li>Since propellants make up less than half a percent of the current cost of getting to orbit, full reusability could lower costs by as much as a factor of 100 over the current cost of getting to orbit.<\/li>\n<li>The only progress being made in lowering space transportation costs is in the private sector.<\/li>\n<li>If SpaceX succeeds in lowering costs that much, they can in fact make lots of money in selling transportation ranging from commercial spacecraft to people buying ride to Mars.<\/li>\n<li>Tyson continues to ignore the many, many examples of private entities leading the exploration of a frontier, e.g. Columbus voyages were funded by Italian banks, polar exploration was mostly privately funded, IBM research has won several Nobel prizes, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>===<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update 2<\/strong>: NASA may finally get a 2013 budget: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacepolicyonline.com\/news\/jwst-commercial-crew-spared-cuts-in-nasa-fy2013-operating-plan#.UiCkXThYzMs.twitter\" target=\"_d\">JWST, Commercial Crew Spared Cuts in NASA FY2013 Operating Plan &#8211; SpacePolicyOnline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some recent space policy related items : Space Experts: NASA Is Dangerously Adrift &#8211; Popular Mechanics Logsdon and Pace Criticize Lack of White House Leadership on NASA, Say Agency is Adrift &#8211; spacepolicyonline.com YHABFT: RD-180 Sales Ban Rumor, A-Com, and FY11 Budget Request HLV Propulsion &#8211; Selenian Boondocks Guest column: NASA lacks vision- Florida Today &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=4216\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Space policy roundup &#8211; Aug.30.13 [Update]<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space-policy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-160","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5616,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5616","url_meta":{"origin":4216,"position":0},"title":"&#8220;America&#8217;s Space Futures&#8221; &#8211; New space policy book to be discussed at Capitol Hill event, Dec.13th","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This Friday the\u00a0George C. Marshall Institute\u00a0will hold an event on Capitol Hill titled: America\u2019s Space Futures: Defining Goals for Space Exploration Date\/Time Date(s) -\u00a012\/13\/20132:00 pm - 3:30 pm Location 2325 Rayburn House Office Building Despite broad popular support for NASA and the importance of America\u2019s efforts in space, the American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=37"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7824,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7824","url_meta":{"origin":4216,"position":1},"title":"Space policy roundup &#8211; May.18.14 [Update]","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Rand\u00a0Simberg\u00a0lays out a plan for independent US access to space for American astronauts :\u00a0Declare space independence from Russia:\u00a0But Congress doesn't seem to think the space program is important enough. - USA Today\u00a0- Astronauts are paid to risk their lives. They accept it as part of the job. We have invested\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Space Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Space Policy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":497,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=497","url_meta":{"origin":4216,"position":2},"title":"Dennis Wingo: Expanding a vision of space beyond NASA","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Dennis Wingo recently posted an essay about the need for a space policy that went beyond the usual Space polic =NASA policy paradigm: Space Abhors a Policy Vacuum: The NRC Report and The Need for a Broad National Space Policy -\u00a0 Moonandback. In this follow-up, he emphasizes the need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Space Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Space Policy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2881,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2881","url_meta":{"origin":4216,"position":3},"title":"Space policy roundup &#8211; June.18.13","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Some space policy for today: NASA Announces Asteroid Grand Challenge - NASA NASA wants you ... to join Grand Challenge to hunt down asteroids - Cosmic Log Draft House NASA Authorization Bill Would Create 6-Year Term for NASA Administrator, No Funds for ARM - spacepolicyonline.com Proposed US ITAR Regulations Impact\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Space Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Space Policy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4479,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=4479","url_meta":{"origin":4216,"position":4},"title":"Space policy roundup &#8211; Sept.15.13","author":"TopSpacer","date":"September 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of space policy related items: The international space station is one of humanity's great engineering triumphs. But now NASA has to face a difficult question: what is it for? - The Washington Post Space Policy Events for the Week of September 16-20, 2013 === Videos of some of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Space Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Space Policy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":398,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=398","url_meta":{"origin":4216,"position":5},"title":"Space policy roundup","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Jeff Foust discusses two op-eds on space policy by a Senator and a Congressman: On a day of remembrance, looking to the future - Space Politics Column calls on NASA to focus on its core mission of space exploration - OrlandoSentinel.com - Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R-CA] Column argues NASA's future\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Space Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Space Policy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4216"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4220,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4216\/revisions\/4220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}