A front-page article in today’s Washington Post describes the gaggle of advisors—”a cast literally of thousands”, the article notes—associated with John Kerry’s presidential campaign. With that many people they seem to have found some who have, or at least claim to have, some space expertise:
And experts have been enlisted to draft policy memos on issues — from the technical to the obscure — that just may crop up between now and November. Advisers have crafted briefings on Microsoft billionaire Paul G. Allen’s private spacecraft, African trade agreements, a manned mission to Mars and federal tax deductibility of state sales taxes.
I don’t know what effect the briefing on a manned Mars mission has had on the Kerry campaign, but one wonders if the briefing on SpaceShipOne may have influenced some of the language in the Kerry campaign’s technology policy released last month that advocates increased use of prizes by government agencies, mentioning the X Prize by name.
A key talking point of the Space Exploration Alliance Moon-Mars blitz was that space policy needs to be bi-partisan.
The Democratic staffers I spoke to unanimously agreed that America needs a space goal that is beyond Low Earth Orbit.
America’s vision for space must survive 20 years, 30 years or 50 years and transitions in political power will necessarily occur. To allow space to become an divise issue in the 2004 political season betrays the goals space advocates seek.
This weekend I met and worked with many “purple” teams composed of avid Democrats (blue) and avid Republicans (red). I was greatly encouraged that on space issues we could mix red & blue (which makes purple) and genuinely work together.
Correction! Red & blue make magenta, sorta purple, I guess.
http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/color/light/magenta.html
= = =
What we space advocates need is the Magenta Agenda for space.
A Magenta Charter?
(sorry)
About time space advocates stopped arguing with each other, and started working together! Sounds like what I recommended to the Mars Underground and the space is a place for only science to be done crowd at CU Boulder 20 years ago. Nice to see these supposed “experts” on space finally catch up to where the common man was twenty some years ago.
Now if they really wanted to get the two major political parties treat space as other than a very peripheral issue, and do something to put their money where their mouths were, that would be even better.
As for John Kerry’s supposed dedication to prizes, why would the civil service labor union (which rightly fears prizes) be embracing him so handily if he were doing anything more than merely talking the talk but not walking the walk (Dan Goldin style) regarding future prize offerings? For more on Kerry’s hefty support by the NASA labor unions:
http://www.spaceprojects.com/bureaucrats
Would anyone here deny that John Kerry’s notorious for taking BOTH sides of an issue, however it suits him at the moment? Prizes were proposed by Lori Garvery at NASA HQ during the ’90’s, but according to NASA HQ’s budget guru Steve Isaacowitz, the item was never proposed to Congress by Goldin and the Clinton Administration. Do we want to risk a Kerry presidency whereby the political breakthrough made by the Bush Administration (Centennial Challenges and DARPA’s Grand Challenge) could get squandered to win favor with the voting tax leeches I mean civil servants?
Meanwhie, Dwayne Day claims in a subsequent thread in this forum that a current Congress can’t force a future one to spend money. How does he reconcile that claim with how this is already part of NASA’s APPROVED budget?
“Funds for announced prizes otherwize authorized shall remain available, without fiscal year limitation, until the prize is claimed or the offer is withdrawn.”
For the source, see http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes
As a follow-up, I’ve read in the past that Kerry has been one of the top recipients of SOFT MONEY in the U.S. Senate. It’s now banned, but do we really think Kerry would turn around and annoy those donors (which can still help his prospects) by offering ADEQUATE competitive prizes?
Bi-partisan or bust!
Magenta is my new favorite color. Time to tell Bob Zubrin to stamp out some new magenta Mars buttons.
Space policy will not decide who wins in November. Iraq might. Whether someone is blue or red, we all should pressure Kerry and Bush to talk as pro-space as possible between now and November.
And slapping the hands of those Democrats who do extend their hand in alliance – – like me – – is simply bad diplomacy.