By Jeff Foust on 2008 May 5 at 8:40 pm ET The Libertarian Party is not looking good in the eyes of many after they invited Richard Hoagland to speak at their national convention later this month in Denver. However, maybe the problem isn’t with the party, but the city. The Rocky Mountain News reported recently that a local man is seeking a referendum on a measure to create an “Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission” in the city. And what would such a commission do? The 18-member commission would “create a responsible, common-sense strategy for dealing with issues related to the presence of extraterrestrial beings on Earth”. Or, as the referendum’s sponsor, Jeff Peckman, told the paper: “It is important because if you’re driving down the highway and you saw a crash of a small spaceship and a car or a bus full of kids, you really wouldn’t know what to do… Do you wait for the hazardous materials experts to show up because of potential contaminants from another solar system? What do you do? People really don’t know.”
Apparently Peckman has something of a reputation in Denver, having previously gotten a proposition on the ballot that would have required the city to “implement stress-reduction techniques” (it failed). Still, perhaps Peckman could get some advice from Hoagland over Memorial Day weekend…
By Jeff Foust on 2008 May 3 at 10:07 am ET This Memorial Day weekend, most people with an interest in space will be focusing their attention on the landing of NASA’s Mars Phoenix spacecraft on the Red Planet. (Many more people, of course, will be thinking about barbecues, ballgames, and the unofficial beginning of summer.) That weekend, though, is also the 2008 Libertarian National Convention in Denver, where Libertarian Party (LP) members will meet to nominate a presidential candidate (former Congressman Bob Barr is the likely nominee) and work on the party platform. Some attendees will also get a dose of space conspiracy theories.
The brochure for the convention featured a talk titled “Inside NASA” by a Dr. David Hoagland. It turns out that’s an error, according to the convention web site: it’s “Do We Still NEED NASA?” by Richard Hoagland. Yes, that Richard Hoagland. The title of the talk would seem to fit into an LP convention, where many people might be skeptical of the need for federal funding for a national space agency. The description of the talk starts off like a good fit:
Mr. Hoagland will address the urgency to redefine and refocus NASA on the critical 21st Century scientific, technological and economic problems facing the United States during the next presidential administration.
So far, so good.
He will also reveal –with official NASA imagery — startling scientific discoveries NASA, by law, has deliberately withheld from the American people for more than 40 years!
Okay, not so good.
In a column in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Billy Cox notes that Hoagland’s presence stands in contrast to efforts by Libertarians to tone down UFO talk within their ranks. Joe Buchman, running for Congress in Utah as a Libertarian, told Cox that state LP officials are “fuming” over Buchman’s push to declassify records that he believes would prove evidence of… well, something to do with alien life. “At least I won’t be the biggest nut case at the convention now,” Buchman said upon learning of Hoagland’s talk.
If there’s one saving grace, it’s that Hoagland’s talk (admission to which requires either a certain level of convention registration or the purchase of a separate ticket) conflicts with a planned outing to a Colorado Rockies game: one case of where having a ballgame win out over space might be a good thing.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 May 3 at 9:57 am ET On Wednesday morning, May 7, the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing titled “Reauthorizing the Vision for Space Exploration”. According to the brief description on the committee web site:
The Subcommittee will consider the issues facing the upcoming reauthorization of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Subcommittee will examine challenges related to the retirement of the Space Shuttle and the transition to the new Orion/Ares system, the impending gap in U.S. human access to space, and the need to ensure a healthy and balanced research program.
The site doesn’t currently have a list of witnesses, but one of them will be George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Society. In a message he sent to members on Friday, he asked for comments from members on “the future of the U.S. space program, its importance to the country, and the potential gap in human spaceflight capability, following the retirement of the Space Shuttle.” If you received that message and want to share the comments you sent to George with readers here, please leave them in the comments.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 May 2 at 8:11 pm ET The tenor of the discussion on some of the recent posts has been unsatisfactory, devolving into long-winded arguments filled with vitriol that are of little interest to anyone other than the participants. To keep the discussion in a higher orbit, please follow a couple of guidelines for participation:
- Tone down the invective. Criticize the comments, not the commenter.
- Yes, people can post here anonymously, and in general not knowing the identity of everyone is outweighed by the quality of information and commentary they provide. However, if you’re going to post anonymously, pick one identity and stick with it. On more than one occasion an individual has used multiple identities (based on server log data) here at the same time, even in the same post. That will not be tolerated.
Thanks, as always, for your anticipated cooperation.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 May 2 at 1:11 pm ET The Houston Chronicle reported Friday that top Democrats in the House have effectively anointed Rep. Nick Lampson (D-TX) as the next chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee’s space subcommittee—provided Lampson wins reelection in November. Lampson previously stated that he was interested in the post, which will be open since the current subcommittee chairman, Mark Udall (D-CO), is running for the Senate.
The designation—which is no guarantee, the article stresses, but is unlikely not to be carried through—is intended to bolster Lampson’s chances for reelection in a district that is home to JSC but also leans Republican. The Chronicle reported earlier in the week that Lampson is also leading an effort to add $2 billion to NASA’s FY 2009 budget, through a letter signed by 30 House members to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If he could pull off that feat, or even a smaller amount like the extra $1 billion sought in the Senate, and do so before the November election, that would probably improve his reelection odds a lot more than the promise of a subcommittee chairmanship.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 April 29 at 7:06 am ET On Monday several members of Congress, including Sen. Bill Nelson and Congressmen Tom Feeney and Dave Weldon, held a “workshop” on space issues Monday in Brevard County, Florida, where people are understandably concerned about life after the space shuttle. According to Florida Today, Nelson said that his subcommittee had proposed holding a field hearing this summer to review the future of KSC but that NASA was opposed: “I’m sad to tell you, NASA has asked me not to have a meeting, because they don’t want to stir up the people.” A NASA spokesman later contacted by the paper said that the agency would support any hearing the committee held.
The Orlando Sentinel focused on another claim made by Nelson: that space could, in effect, be a key issue in the general election because of the pivotal role of Florida, and within the state, the “I-4 corridor”, including the Space Coast. “The next president is going to decide a lot [about the space program],” Nelson said. “And East-Central Florida has an opportunity to influence the next president because, at the end of the day, Florida is going to be important this November.” However, as the Republican primary this January showed, space may not nearly be as critical issue in the state or region as some supporters hope.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 April 29 at 6:51 am ET In case you missed it, on Saturday CNN aired a brief report on space and the lack of attention it was getting on the campaign trail in this presidential election. While you’re unlikely to learn much new about the topic from the report if you’ve been reading this and other resources on the topic in recent months, the report was disappointing in another way: it focused almost entirely on building up a space race between China and the US. Among the claims made by the CNN piece: “Chinese scientists talk about mining the lunar surface for possible nuclear energy resources that are plentiful there but rare on Earth.” That’s a reference, of course, to helium-3, and such mining might indeed be useful—in that day in the far future when we actually have operational helium-3 fusion reactors.
“But there is genuine and growing fear among some scientists that if space does not become a higher priority, the Chinese program will be on par with America’s by the end of the next president’s second term,” the piece concludes. It’s not clear that CNN talked to any scientists in the article—the only experts quoted are Robert Zubrin and a military analyst—and some scientists might have very different opinions about current space policy depending on, for example, the status of their budgets. There’s no discussion in the piece about concrete, near-term issues like the impending retirement of the shuttle and the gap between it and Constellation, something that the next president will have to immediately grapple with.
It does raise an interesting question, though: should US space policy, and the candidates’ positions on the issue, be judged against the “threat” (real or perceived) of China or other nations, or should it be judged against whatever national goals we have for it, regardless of what other countries are doing?
By Jeff Foust on 2008 April 26 at 8:40 am ET An AP article Saturday examines the reelection challenge Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) is facing for his House seat. Democrats have made Feeney “their top Florida target” and are playing up allegations of ethical improprieties by him. Feeney, the ranking member of the space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee, is instead emphasizing his space experience for his district, which includes the Kennedy Space Center.
Feeney tells the AP that he is concerned that China is challenging US leadership in space, noting events like China’s ASAT test last January. It appears, though, he could use a refresher course on China’s space capabilities. “He warns that the Chinese are developing killer satellites that can attach themselves to other orbiting devices,” the article notes. However, claims that China was developing “parasitic microsatellites” were debunked a few years ago after people traced the source of the intelligence to a source with little credibility. (Perhaps Feeney will pick up some new intelligence on his current trip to China to participate in a global space forum in Beijing.)
Feeney’s Democratic opponent, Suzanne Kosmas, is focusing on issues other than space in the campaign, according to the article (her barebones campaign web site has a picture of a shuttle launch on it, but that’s it for space-related content.) The article indicates that at least some people in the district will factor in space into their voting decisions. “It’s going to kill this town,” one Titusville resident tells the AP, speaking of the shuttle’s impending retirement. “This town pretty much lives for the space shuttle.” It’s not clear Feeney would be able to do much about that: while he is a cosponsor of Rep. Dave Weldon’s shuttle extension legislation (HR 4837), he has talked recently about the need to shorten the post-shuttle gap by accelerating work on Constellation rather than keeping the shuttle flying after 2010.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 April 25 at 7:45 am ET Friday’s Orlando Sentinel reports that senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has introduced legislation designed to support the Arecibo radio observatory in Puerto Rico. The giant radio telescope is in danger of closing because of budget pressures on the National Science Foundation’s astronomy programs, much to the consternation of astronomers who use the facility for a variety of applications, including tracking near Earth objects.
The Sentinel article plays up the timing of Clinton’s legislation, introduced last week: the commonwealth will hold a primary on June 1, one of the last of campaign. “Arecibo has been in peril for a while now,” a co-director of Barack Obama’s Puerto Rico campaign told the paper. “The timing is more than suspect.” Clinton does have a legitimate case in introducing the legislation, since the observatory is run by Cornell University in New York state, but her Senate office didn’t explain why the bill was introduced now.
One thing the Sentinel article missed, though, is that Clinton’s bill, S. 2862, is effectively word-for-word identical to HR 3737, a bill introduced last October by Luis Fortuño, the commonwealth’s non-voting representative, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). (A press release issued by Clinton’s Senate office does note that a “similar” bill was introduced in the House, and includes a quote from Fortuño.) HR 3737 was assigned to the House Science and Technology Committee, which has not acted on the bill; the Senate, interestingly, sent S. 2862 to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and not the Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 April 24 at 5:56 pm ET Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has won the endorsement of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), a union that represents scientists, engineers, and other technical professions at various companies and organizations, including NASA. Space (or even more general science) policy did not factor into the IFPTE’s decision, at least according to the statement the union released, which instead cited issues ranging from H-1B visa reform to health care.
The IFPTE release includes a statement from Sen. Obama, who did make a passing reference to NASA: “I’ll support vigorous reinvestment in our federal research and development agencies, including NASA, to maintain America’s leadership in Science and Technology and to foster economic competitiveness.”
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