----- Forwarded message from [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----
> Subject: Space Access Update #108 1/31/05
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 09:43:45 -0800
>
> Space Access Update #108 01/31/05
> Copyright 2004 by Space Access Society
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Do not hit "reply" to email us - it'll be buried in tides of spam, and
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> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
> Contents this issue:
>
> - Space Access '05 Conference Set For Phoenix AZ April 28-30 2005
>
> - New Administration Space Transportation Policy
>
> - Who Will Run NASA?
>
>
> Coming soon:
>
> - What A Difference A Year Makes: Industry Roundup
> - Space Access '05 Preliminary Speakers List
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
> Space Access '05 Conference, April 28-30, Phoenix Arizona
>
> We've gotten a number of queries as to whether our conference is
> happening this year, if so when, where's the hotel, and so forth. We're
> actually pretty close to our usual just-in-time pace on pinning down and
> publicizing these things, but to reassure y'all (and let you start to
> make travel plans) here's where we stand right now, three months out:
>
> We've narrowed our list of a dozen possible hotels down to a primary and
> an alternate, and our hotel liaison is currently working out a contract
> with the primary. Both primary and alternate are newer hotels than last
> year's, at about the same room rate - both have, in response to numerous
> requests, high-speed internet - and both have the space we need open for
> our dates (as do several tertiary backups) so we can guarantee the
> conference will take place starting 2 pm Thursday April 28th, running
> through Saturday night April 30th, within a moderate cab or shuttle-van
> ride of the Phoenix airport. Both hotels are great sites - the primary
> has a wide variety of nearby places to eat drink and shop, the alternate
> is a really nice self-contained resort, and either would work well for
> our conference. We expect we'll have a contract signed in the next week
> or so, at which point we'll publish the hotel details.
>
> Take a look at http://www.space-access.org/updates/sa04prgb.doc for our
> 2004 conference program book to give you an idea what sort of conference
> we put together just-in-time last year. This year's conference will be
> broadly similar, modulo a year's rapid progress in the field of
> radically cheaper space transportation.
>
> Space Access '05 conference registration remains at $100 in advance,
> $120 at the door, mail checks to (note new address!)
>
> Space Access '05
> 5515 N 7th st #5-348
> Phoenix AZ 85014
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
> New Administration Space Transportation Policy
>
>
> The President signed off on a new national space transportation policy
> at the end of last year, and there's a lot to like in it. (Summary at
> http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=15010) It formally gets
> rid of the mid-nineties division of labor that gave NASA a monopoly on
> reusable rocket development (which NASA proceeded to expensively botch)
> while confining DOD to expendables; each now can develop to meet its own
> space transport needs. It also mandates NASA develop new capabilities
> only where its needs can't be met by capabilities already in use in the
> defense or commercial sectors. It acknowledges the importance of the US
> commercial space transportation sector in general, mandates a supportive
> government-purchase, regulatory and launch-range environment for the
> commercial sector, and specifically supports commercial human
> spaceflight efforts. It says the US government "must provide sufficient
> and stable funding for acquisition of US space transportation
> capabilities in order to create a climate in which a robust space
> transportation industrial and technology base can flourish", and cites
> fundamental transformation of capabilities and capitalizing on the
> entrepreneurial spirit of the US private sector in that context, which
> implies that at least some share of the funding should go to the
> innovative startups.
>
> Have we died and gone to heaven? Well, no, not exactly. The policy
> necessarily spends considerable time dealing with various aspects of
> the legacy space establishment - keep both EELV's until further notice,
> return Shuttle to flight then retire it when Station is complete, and so
> forth. And it mandates a massive DOD/NASA/industry central-planning
> exercise for "next-generation space transportation capabilities" that we
> suspect has far too good a chance of turning about as many billions into
> as many viewgraphs over as many years as most previous such efforts.
>
> But this policy allows for and by implication encourages a lot of
> smaller efforts, defense and commercial, outside the old-space megalith
> project complex. Mammals scurrying around under the dinosaurs' feet, if
> you will. And it does tell the dinosaurs NOT to go out of their way to
> step on the new arrivals, though absent ongoing adult supervision from
> the top political levels we wouldn't bet the mortgage on that being
> scrupulously observed.
>
> Ultimately, any such policy depends more on continuing top-level
> political support for its effectiveness than it does on the finicky
> details of this paragraph or that subclause. Recent history gives us
> some cause for optimism here - we'd estimate that the amount of
> government space funding (out of thirty billion or more overall)
> actually going in what we regard as the right general direction to
> produce a space transportation revolution has risen to a decent fraction
> of 1%. That doesn't sound like much - but the whole point of our
> revolution is that it doesn't cost much, done right.
>
> Give us a full 1% for reusable rocket R&D and we'll change the world -
> and under this Administration and this policy, we might just get that 1%.
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
> Who Will Run NASA?
>
> It is no denigration of Sean O'Keefe to say that he leaves NASA still
> short of being a useful and efficient government space exploration
> agency. Given how wilfully dysfunctional major parts of the
> organization were a few years ago, the fact that all of the agency's
> centers now have some handle on what they're spending and pay some
> attention to what NASA HQ tells them is a triumph. We thank Mr. O'Keefe
> for the considerable progress, and we wish him well in his new job.
>
> But the major strides NASA has made in accounting and accountability
> are, we believe, only a start. If the agency is indeed to take the lead
> in resuming outward human space exploration progress without radical
> budget increase, it is going to have to undergo radical transformation.
> Much of what it does now will have to be shut down to free up the needed
> resources. More vitally, much of HOW it does things now will have to be
> set aside. Much accreted bureaucracy from the last thirty years has to
> go, organizationally AND conceptually.
>
> We will not presume to tell the White House who they should pick to
> succeed O'Keefe. Indeed, this close to his departure, we suspect they
> may well have already made up their mind. But we will, on the off
> chance someone might be listening, say a few things about what sort of
> person we think should take over at NASA.
>
> He should have a thick skin. He'll be making painful changes and he's
> going to take considerable flack. (For the same reasons, he should also
> have the confidence and ongoing support of the White House. Strong
> Congressional support, away from existing NASA centers, wouldn't hurt
> either.)
>
> He should be well-grounded (or at least extremely and independently
> well-advised) in space technology. He'll be making important technical
> decisions, and the old NASA bureaucracy has a long history of trying to
> stack the deck in their advice on such.
>
> He should probably not be from within NASA. The old-line NASA
> bureaucracy demonstrably has a number of pernicious technological and
> organizational prejudices; the average career NASA person will tend to
> have internalized far too much of this baggage.
>
> He should be bureaucratically astute (or at least extremely well-
> advised). His main job will be not so much conducting future human
> space exploration, but rather finishing the transformation of NASA into
> an organization capable of conducting that future exploration.
>
> That is still a long shot at this point. We'd be satisfied if NASA ends
> up merely getting out of the way of the radically cheaper space
> transportation revolution we push for. But if NASA can actually be
> rehabilitated to the point where it recommences useful outward expansion
> of the human frontier later this decade, we wouldn't mind at all.
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Space Access Society's sole purpose is to promote radical reductions
> in the cost of reaching space. You may redistribute this Update in
> any medium you choose, as long as you do it unedited in its entirety.
> You may reproduce sections of this Update beyond obvious "fair use"
> quotes if you credit the source and include a pointer to our website.
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Space Access Society
> http://www.space-access.org
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Reach low orbit and you're halfway to anywhere in the Solar System"
> - Robert A. Heinlein
----- End forwarded message -----
Michael
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Wallis KF6SPF (408) 396-9037 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kevin Standlee:
"Fast! Accurate! Cheap! --- Pick any two!"
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