Former Astronaut Says NASA Needs New Direction, Goals

Former Astronaut Robert Stewart spoke out Friday about NASA's lack of goals and vision that is taking it in the wrong direction. He mentions that NASA is spending too much time and money and years just "shuttling" astronauts back and forth from the International Space Station when there is so much out there that the agency should be focused on. The first step is to develop new spacecrafts, saying that "The shuttle needs to go away. It's an old and dangerous aircraft." He continued by saying that "NASA's real job is space exploration and that's what we should be focusing on again," which is a very good point. Stewart thinks it is a good idea to go to the moon first and build a base there where NASA can test equipment that will eventually get used on a mission to Mars. This is a pretty good idea because as he points out, if something goes wrong it only takes 3 days to get astronauts home. I think Stewart is on to something. NASA makes trips to the space station all the time, and shuttle lift-offs and landings do get a lot of press coverage. But most people really know nothing about what actually goes on in the ISS, and probably could care less anyway. To get the public behind bolder funding for NASA, they need to see some tangible results and a reachable goal that will actually get realized (hopefully without an absurd timetable). In my second paper for class, I wrote about space-based solar power (and I have written 2 blog posts about it). I think NASA needs to aggressively pursue SBSP, which is feasible within the decade, will give the country excellent returns for the investment, and ultimately lead to sustainable, renewable energy security.