|
NEW SCIENTIST
NASA requires a transformation if it is to reach the Moon and Mars, a top-level advisory panel said at its last public hearing on Tuesday. But the biggest problem may be transforming attitudes toward the space programme's budget.
The President's Commission on Moon, Mars, and Beyond is tasked with suggesting ways NASA can achieve the ambitious goals set out by President George W Bush in January. Those aims included putting astronauts back on the Moon by 2020 and then on Mars.
The commission is not worrying about specific details, says its chairman Pete Aldridge, a former astronaut and undersecretary of defense. But the panel will deliver in early June a list of "the 10 major things that the president must do" to get the Moon-Mars programme off the ground.
Transforming NASA's management and culture are the top priorities, say the panel, echoing recommendations made following the Columbia shuttle disaster.
"The NASA that has been has become inwardly focused and ... a drag on the budget," said panel member Robert Walker, former head of the House Science and Technology Committee. "The NASA that can be is risk taking and economically vibrant."
The hard stuff
Aldridge called for creating a structure that "must be sustainable over decades," with "more private sector involvement" as well as international partnerships. Potential international partners have expressed interest, Aldridge said, but with the architecture still unknown, no one knows what contributions they can make.
SEE FULL TEXT
|