At a panel discussion Tuesday night at Georgetown Law School, Jim Muncy of PoliSpace provided a top ten list of myths about the Bush space plan, provided below in a slightly-paraphrased form from my notes:
10) The Bush agenda is responsible for killing Hubble.
9) It leaves us dependent on the Russians.
8) It’s a scheme to channel more money to Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
7) It kills ISS.
6) It’s a political ploy to benefit the President in Florida.
5) The Moon is boring.
4) This will cost $1 trillion / Bush hasn’t budgeted enough.
3) Robots can do this better and cheaper.
2) This is about science.
1) It’s about NASA.
In his presentation Muncy debunked each of those myths in detail, too much so to include here. Nonetheless, this is interesting food for thought, since we have probably heard some or all of those reasons invoked in opposition to the plan. (In a speech last week, NASA comptroller Steve Isakowitz offered just four rebuttals to complaints about the policy; I’ll post those when I get the chance.)
Jeff,
Do you know if there is a transcript available anywhere online so I could read the whole thing? So far, I’ve only heard some snippets from Rand and you.
~Jonathan Goff
Is concern about a possible lack of heavy lift a legitimate objection, or a myth?
Jonathan:
I’m not aware of a transcript of the event. It was being videotaped, presumably by either the Space Law Society at Georgetown or the university itself, although I don’t know whether or how the video is available. I have my own audio recording of the panel, but don’t have the time to transcribe it myself (the panel lasted for over two hours!) nor the resources to hire a professional transcriber.
There is an article about the panel in Friday’s edition of The Hoya, the student newspaper at Georgetown: http://www.thehoya.com/news/022004/news9.cfm
Bill:
There are mixed opinions about the necessity of a new heavy-lift vehicle, either derived from the shuttle (like Shuttle-C) or the Atlas 5 or Delta 4 EELVs. The concept appears to be under active study within NASA, and a decision whether or not to proceed at some level of study or even development of a heavy-lift vehicle could come later this year.