Space Politics

The wave of commentary about the relative utility of humans versus robots in space exploration has made its way to the nation’s largest newspapers. Monday’s Boston Globe takes a fairly subtle approach, praising Stardust and New Horizons while mentioning only in passing that such missions demonstrate “the scientific value of robotic projects that do not […]

Apparently the confluence of the return of Stardust and the impending launch of New Horizons touched a few more nerves than just the Des Moines Register, as noted here yesterday. The Seattle Times compares the risks and benefits of human and robotic spaceflight:

Opportunities and dangerous initiatives beyond human limits reinforce concerns about sending human […]

In Sunday’s New York Times featured an op-ed by Robert Park bemoaning NASA’s decision to terminate the Triana mission. (See previous discussion of that decision.) Park argues that the ties the mission had to then-Vice President Al Gore doomed the mission:

Scientists had dreamed of such an observatory for years. They hoped Mr. Gore’s influence […]

I noted here last month that there has been very little controversy surrounding the pending launch of NASA’s New Horizons mission, a spacecraft powered by an RTG. That has changed a little bit, but not significantly, in the last couple of weeks. The most notable development was a protest outside the gates of Cape Canaveral […]

Try campaigning for Parliament in Canada! That’s what Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space, is discovering as, among other things, he spends cold mornings greeting train riders (en français) at a station in his riding west of Montreal, the Montreal Gazette reports. The campaign has been a little rough for the first-time candidate (and […]