Nowhere does the panel description state that human space exploration should be terminated, deferred, slowed, or otherwise “eschewed”. In fact, the panel description argues for an “upgrade” to the VSE. If anything, the panel description is calling for an acceleration, enhancement, augmentation, improvement, or other “upgrade” to the VSE.

It’s fine to criticize, but let’s do so on the basis of what’s actually written or said, not what we think or wish the words were.

FWIW…

http://www.donaldfrobertson.com/democrts.html

— Donald

Nonsense. Not that it wasn’t said at the time (as it has been aid ever since) — but several other larger, more compelling reasons were ahead of that in line.

Maybe the panelists you cited are members in good standing with the NetRoots community and can speak in their language to persuade them to be open to science, even if some of the dollars go to Lockheed or Boeing or NG. BHO is the titular leader of the NetRoots, until he is clear about the role of Nasa and big science, I doubt the NetRoots will get ahead of him at this conference.

Unforunately you are wrong. I don’t live in Washington State as Jeff will tell you from the IP. And my training is in engineering not in physics.

anonymous.space – The best figure I have seen is about 8,000 for the Shuttle from NASA

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2008-04/space-shuttle-retirement-could-force-major-job-losses

However given the age of the Shuttle workforce I expect many will just take retirement so the actual job lost will be smaller still.

Impossible. The entire NASA workforce, both civil servant and contractor, totals only 60,000 or so. As of April 2007, it was 62,457 total — 18,434 civil servants and 44,023 contractors. See the seventh paragraph in this House Science Committee press release (add http://):

science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1833

“The highest scare estimate I have seen for jobs lost due to the spaceflight Gap is about 20,000, mostly in Florida, Lousiana and Texas.”

Again, impossible. The total Space Shuttle workforce, both civil servant and contractor, totals only 17,000 or so. As of July 2007, it was approximately 2,000 civil servants and 15,000 contractors. See page 3 of this GAO report (add http://):

democrats.science.house.gov/Media/File/Commdocs/hearings/2007/space/24jul/chaplain_testimony.pdf

Please, let’s check our numbers before throwing patently false and potentially misleading figures around.

FWIW…

My experience with space diaries at Daily Kos has been strong resistance to spending billions of tax dollars on NASA-only flags and footprints projects. People would rather send robots than spend billions for human flags and footprints missions.

But, if we attempt to explain that there might be other ways, people start to get interested. Andrew Hoppin’s success in winning this panel slot is one example of that.

Also, Netroots Nation also offers a real opportunity to preach outside the usual closed circle of space enthusiasts. Taking church to the sinners rather than preaching to the choir, as it were.

Anyway, here are the panelists for that conference (a solid highly reputable panel, IMHO) :

Lori Garver (well known Democratic space enthusiast)
George Whitesides (National Space Society)
Patti Grace Smith (FAA associate admin – commercial space)
Chris Bowers (OpenLeft blogger)

A brief bio on Bowers:

Chris Bowers was a full-time editor at MyDD from May 2004 until June 2007. A compilation of his most influential writing on MyDD can be found here. Some of his projects have included the creation of the , the first scientifically random poll of progressive netroots activists, the Use It Or Lose It campaign, the nation’s most accurate forecast of Democratic house pickups in 2006, and the 2006 Googlebomb the Elections campaign. He is also the treasurer of BlogPac, a fellow at the Commonweal Institute, on the advisory board of The Democratic Strategist, and has personally joined in “the silent revolution” by winning a seat on the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee. Bowers is 33, lives in Philadelphia, and occasionally works as a netroots consultant for progressive candidates and organizations including SEIU, Media Matters, and Congressman Brad Miller’s 2006 re-election campaign.

A brief excerpt on what the Open Left blog stands for:

It’s time to get over the idea that ‘the left’, liberals, progressives, or anyone who believes that power should be distributed and not concentrated in the hands of a few is a scary hippy. And that’s why we called the site ‘OpenLeft'; we see our ideas as a mark of pride, not shame. We think that businesses – like Google – have built highly profitable organizations based on principles of sharing information and distributing power. The genuine radical threat at this moment in history is coming from elites who believe that concentrating power, information, and wealth in their hands should be America’s priority. The response to this threat is a new era of left-wing activism, promoted by normal Americans, who have innovated with the tools we have.

For the progressive left, a von-Braun-ian NASA holding a monopoly on human spaceflight is simply not acceptable. My perceptions are that the progressive left would very much support shattering the paradigm that NASA should hold a monopoly over human spaceflight. However, unlike some on the libertarian right who would abolish NASA and put every egg in the NewSpace RLV basket, I see the progressive left wanting to leverage maximum return from NASA dollars that will necessarily be spent sustaining jobs in FL, LA, CA, AL, TX and elsewhere.

As for President Obama and NASA, part of the intent of the Netroots Nation panel is to begin building the consensus and allies needed to assist those in Congress who desire a strong space program. This pending 2008 Authorization Act has arisen from a Democratic Congress with apparent bi-partisan support and I believe Congressional Democrats are trying to send Barack Obama a message with that bill.

Obama is too smart of a politician to repudiate his Congressional allies over the NASA budget, especially when slashing that budget will cause massive job losses in key battleground states and will NOT make money available for education anyway after we take into account the de-commissioning and out-placement expenses associated with closing down NASA.

= = =

All that said, I believe change in coming in 2009 whether its Obama or McCain.

I believe ESAS versus DIRECT versus shuttle C versus EELV versus COTS D — or some combination adding COTS D to one of the prior options ??

Evaluating all of that will come back on that table in an Obama administration (or a McCain administration) but either way that will also be a feature rather than a bug.