Congress

House hearing on lunar science

The space subcommittee of the House Science Committee has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, April 1, at 1 pm to discuss “Lunar Science and Resources: Future Options”. The witnesses for the hearing haven’t been formally announced by the committee on its web site, but according to a University of Arizona press release the current list of speakers is:

  • Donald Campbell, Cornell University
  • Dan Lester, University of Texas
  • John Lewis, University of Arizona
  • Paul Spudis, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
  • Tim Swindle, University of Arizona

Spudis is also one of the members of the Aldridge Commission. The timing of this hearing is unfortunate, as that same afternoon the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing on the NASA budget, with Sean O’Keefe scheduled to appear. The two hearings don’t completely overlap (the Senate hearing starts 90 minutes after the House one), but they are close enough together in time and far enough apart in space to make it difficult to attend both without missing substantial portions of one.

2 comments to House hearing on lunar science

  • Dwayne A. Day

    I attended this hearing. At one point there were more congressmen present than audience members. I think I counted six congressmen and five witnesses and five or six audience members.

    The witnesses were actually pretty interesting. I suggest reading their testimonies. They threw cold water on several subjects, including lunar astronomy, mining for lunar ice, and mining helium-3.

  • Doug Lassiter

    Nope. There were three reps present. Roharbacher, Lampson, and Bartlett. Feeney was there briefly before things started. Confusion may have been because senior staff members were seated at the dais along with the reps. This number is not unusual for a hearing in which the main point is to get stuff in the Congressional Record.