Opinion: Space Exploration Requires Partnerships
Department:
The Future in Space
Teaser:
"The size of the challenges associated with human exploration beyond Earth orbit is likely beyond what any single space agency is willing to spend to carry out those missions. Andre Bormanis describes the types of partnerships that are critical to making such exploration possible."
Source:
The Space Review Download time: Jul 19 2010 9:23 AM ET
One thing everyone can agree on with respect to the Obama Administration's intention to cancel the Constellation program: it has triggered a vigorous debate about the future of NASA and the role that organization will play in humanity's next steps into the solar system. Numerous articles posted in The Space Review have illuminated the scope of this debate, from its fundamental assumptions about the value of space exploration for the United States and its people, to the variety of ways in which a post-shuttle program of human exploration beyond LEO might be carried out.
In reading about and pondering these issues, it seems to me that there are three critical partnerships that will reshape NASA, and the larger vision of space exploration it represents, well into the 21st century. Exploring the current debate in the context of these three partnerships might help illuminate how future human expeditions beyond LEO will be carried out. A brief review the assumptions behind NASA's Constellation program, and its technological godfather, Apollo, will help set the stage for this discussion.…
