While the technical folks at the Space Symposium might be focused on improving launch systems to hurdle more into low-Earth orbit, the policy and business experts are focused more on other--perhaps bigger--obstacles to a
second Space Age. The erosion of Congressional support for space exploration and manned missions, a lack of enthusiasm among the general populace for engineering disciplines, and program costs that are headed to orbit along with their payloads will all hinder any push for space, Ken Calvert, ranking member of the U.S. House of
Representative's Subcommittee on Space & Aeronautics, Committee on Science & Technology told attendees of the Space
Symposium on Tuesday morning.
Every year, NASA finds itself fighting for funding. Congress funded NASA last year at $500 million less than that requested by President Bush. This year, the current budget calls for a boost of nearly $2 billion, but the agency should again be ready to see its funding eroded, Calvert added.
"You can bet NASA will be the target (of tactics to shift funding to other areas) this year and will have to be ready to defend its budget," he told attendees.
While the industry needs to focus on regaining support for space programs in Congress, the government also needs to get American citizens interested in working in the space industry. High-school students are less interested in science and engineering as a career, companies are only investing 1 percent toward research and development in the space industry and people no longer dream of being an astronaut. For NASA, getting new blood is important as its engineering force in some facilities has grayed significantly. That must change, Calvert said.
"We are better off if we are the ones who invent the future," he said.
Part of the reaction to all these earthbound problems has been to lower the goals of the space program.
The vision for the International Space Station -- which is currently hosting its fifth space tourist, Microsoft
Word developer Charles Simonyi -- has repeatedly been narrowed. The congressman stressed that succeeding at modest goals should not be considered success.
"We can no longer call low-Earth orbit progress, and a return to the moon cannot be a replay of the
1960s," Calvert said.
