The Civil space program is not just a race of who goes first and who lands what where. It has not only been a sign of pride for Americans but for the human race in general. Exploring space and getting the technology there to understand how God created such magnificent bodies also gives us of an understanding of Earth and be able to appreciate the life we have here. In another side, with the economic strain in the economy in general, the ability to continue to explore the vast space and bodies before us make us pause what is the goal of the Civil Space Program should be.

It should be geared toward space travel and prioritize for survival and better understanding the link between these heavenly bodies and our planet earth. Other projects should be less prioritize but not forgotten nor put aside. I believe all projects are good for the country and the planet as a whole. But most specially NASA should put their efforts on programs geared toward survival of our planet and not the pockets of contractors or suppliers.

Others may think NASA or the space program has no effect or impact on key issues. But I believe it bears a good portion on the economy and others areas. If there are suppliers who are from abroad, there can be agreements made where the technology can be brought to the US and bring more jobs to millions who are in danger of losing their house and home because of the massive layoffs. On the war versus terror, with or without proof of massive arms of destruction NASA and its program can be part of a security protocol that can help with the other parameters of security without added cost to both NASA and the government.

As you can probably tell, I am hesitant to voice my opinion.... I just am tired (as an American) of solving the rest of the world's problems, whether it be a political problem or technological problem with our blood, sweat, tears, and treasure.

I suggest that we (The United States) let the Chinese spend their newly discovered treasure (what used to be our money) going to the moon... and if they need help along the way, we give it to them (for a small fee of course).

We can always look at it like, "been there, done that"....

We should get a simple, reliable, CHEAP method of getting large payloads into orbit quickly, and a large lunar outpost will just follow as a natural progressiong from this. A Mars mission will follow soon after the trips between the Earth and the Moon become common. When the Spanish, British, French, and Dutch Empires began to deiscover the theories behind navigation and began traversing open oceans in larger vessels, colinization followed soon afterwards.

So I don't think we need to rush to Mars in a publicity stunt spending money we don't even have right now. The cost is too extreme, and some of the the technology hurdles are not overcome yet (long endurance space flight).

Let's just focus on a cheap, reliable, Single Stage to Orbit Vehicle (SSTOV). Once we get this going, we can get our own space program off the ground (ehem...), as it has been mired in political correctness since the Apollo-Soyuz days of the mid 70's.

This leads me to my last thought... If the rest of the world wants to join the USA in moving foward into the future, they are welcome to join. As long as they pay their fair share of the burden. All of these other countries (Russia, France, China, India, and many others) have benifited way too much from the United States's sacrifices.

Anyone who starts using this "we are the world"\"humanistic" kind of talk can take thier "New World Order"\"1984" loving asses back to wherever they come from and develop thier own space program.

How about we (the United States) send China a big fat bill for the rocket tecknology they stole from us in order to get thier future mission to the moon?

How about we send the Russians a bill for taking over the new International Space Station (Soyuz II) that they put on OUR tab and now occupy like they did Poland during the cold war? Jesus, I'll bet the ISS smells like vodka, borsht, and smelly Russians!

How about we send a big fat bill to Japan for protecting them from the Russians for 50+ years after WWII, when you know that Stalin would have loved to make them pay for the loss in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904. (not to mention the fact that we rebuilt thier economy after THEY attacked us at Pearl Harbor)

How about we send France a HUGE bill for handing back thier country to them on a silver platter ater spilling OUR blood to get it back from the NAZI's? I cannot look at pictures of the memorials on the shores of Omaha beach without going into fits of rage! Friggen French! They started this economic mess too!

Oh and to Nick K.'s statement about the U.S. being an international bully....

If you are already here, would you please leave? If you HATE the USA so much, we don't want you here. Bye! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

And if you are in another country, YOU ARE WELCOME. Because if it wasn't for the United States and NASA and all of our tax dollars that we have poured into it over the years, we would not have many of the technologies we take for granted today such as the Microchips, semi-conductors, solar panels, fuel cells, high efficiency batteries, and a whole range of technologies that basically forced the rest of the world, hicking and screaming I might add, to enter the 20th and 21st centeries.

If the USA sucks so much, how come is seems like every loser from every country on the planet would LOVE to be here even with all of our financial problems right now.

BTW - of all those BILLIONS of people that you say hate the USA, who elected you to speak for them?

First of all, DO NOT scrap the shuttle until we (the United States) has a reliable vehicle already beyond the prototype phase. If we scrap the shuttle in five years as planned, and put our reliance on the Russians (not our ally) to get our missions into orbit, it will be a travesty.

Bring the X-planes back! Whatever happened to the X-33 Venture Star, the X-37, and other SSTO vehicles that we have been hearing about for 25 years?

Why are we wasting money developing these orbital vehicles and the related technologies and then go BACK to a plain old large multistage rocket method? What a waste!

Why don't you all just hire Burt Ruttan to design a replacement for the shuttle and outsource that too? This would at least be a more patriotic option than depending on the Russians.

USA is an international bully. What do we do to bullies we reject them from society.
Why does USA has to get involved in everything using NASAS equipment. Why do you have to spy and harrash every other nation that does not like you or your ways.
NASA has to get rid of the USA government if they want to get ahead and give theire knowlegde to the world.
Do you really know how many billion of people HATE USA. Why does NASA has to be treated as a USA inteligence agent.
NASA has to realise that the world will not tollerate any more mistakes from USA.
If you can do the above then you might reach a point where HUMANITY will be number 1 priority, and not money.

Primary Objective: Focus on the future, sure its interesting to see the birth of stars light years away, keep that up too , so long as its geared to 'forsee' the future.
Trying to work out the cause of the universe and the age old question: 'Why are we here?' should be a Secondary Objective.

Basically, focus on Survival and how ensure it. Try to forsee potential threats to our existence: ala Armegeddon (film). But focus more on finding resources for human life, be it harvesting another planet or discovering new energy to preserve our own.

NASA should create a human-friendly invornment on mars.
We screwed up this planet, we may only get one other shot at what we call civil behavior.

In this difficult economic time not only in the US, but around the globe, people are making tough choices with regards to their budgets. In some cases, it’s ‘Can we afford a vacation this year?’, or ‘Can we afford to buy that new car?’ In other cases, it’s much more difficult, ‘Can I afford all my medications and still have money for food?’, ‘How do I pay the mortgage and my credit cards?’ With the understanding that every nickel of tax money is valuable, program goals for the future must be tempered by the times. What projects can be undertaken that provide the most return for the investment, and how can these projects be scaled to impact the lives of everyone?

Projects that provide insight and breakthroughs in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and infrastructure creation for a new, greener grid can serve the purposes of exploration while providing tangible, real-world impact. Everything in our high-tech environment needs power, whether we’re exploring the depths of space or surfing the web! How to harness, store, and transmit that energy are problems that could be focused on. Extra-terrestrial solutions developed for the space station, Moon, or Mars may be adaptable in new programs to provide reliable energy to the terrestrial grids. Is it possible to direct efforts towards fuel efficient vehicles? Why are we relying on the engineers from the auto industry to create the better battery? My money is on NASA engineers any day of the week! Can you show the public programs that can provide progress in the struggle for energy independence and sustainability? Last time I checked, Exxon Mobil had not yet placed a service station in space. I’m sure they would if they could charge five bucks a gallon, but my point is, the space program and related scientific programs have been dealing with difficult energy problems and the need for reliability for years. Like I said, my money is on you.

Global climate change is on the minds of many people, although it inevitably takes a back seat to the economy. It is regrettable that the attention brought to fighting pollution and creating rational plans for a cleaner, greener future is being re-directed to economic issues. However we cannot afford to postpone global interventions to secure our planet from the impact of man-made pollutants. Could the goals of the space program aid in this Endeavor by helping to develop technology that can be utilized to pioneer space while also protecting our environment? I’m no rocket scientist, that’s your job, but I don’t see why these goals have to be mutually exclusive.

Positive press and up-front high-tech PR is something that the programs should continue to strive for. Why aren’t more people talking about the work you’re doing? Why aren’t there more videos on YouTube about all the cutting edge stuff you’re cooking up?(and if they are out there, why can’t I find them easier, although I love NASA TV) The ReelNasa videos are pretty funny but take a look at how effective some of the more recent internet campaigns have been. Whether for politicians or pop-culture icons, these campaigns obviously work when applied correctly. The same captivating integration of the public in internet campaigns can put the goals of the program at the center of conversation all over the country and provide the support needed for progress. Make the public feel like you’re fighting on our side for the protection of the planet and the progression of exploration. Shown a reasonable and motivating proposition, most Americans appear ready for change and prepared for commitment, you just have to strike the right nerve.

In closing, thanks for listening and I hope that this Studies Board is constructive and draws some positive recommendations from these posts. I’d just like to say that focusing on technology whose application is only possible in very specific scientific experiments is, I’m sure, necessary in many cases. However in this current economy and with the general level of public support, it may be counterproductive. If the economies of the planet stagnate or fail, science and exploration will be among the first victims of budgetary drawbacks and public un-interest. To prevent crippling set-backs in funding and to focus on problems that effect the entire planet, I strongly feel that plans for further exploration and experimentation be linked as directly as possible to the major issues we face as a nation and a planet.

Currently we are seeing independant efforts that are maturing into contributing in the Science of Space
with India launching there mission to the moon , Three Mars Lander missions, US being suscessful , Eurpean space agency
almost successful with the beagle and a attempt from Asia which did not get off the ground and a thausand other misssions each nation of the world are undertaken. It would be good to see a Central world orginzation that would be setting direction of what are the critical missions that should be on the world agenda , right now I could alternate energy solutions being on top of the list.

I agree with Athina O. In a sense we already do that. I don't know if there is a "World Space Exploration League" or anything. It would be great if every country with an interest joined. I do know that if we do not at least have an equal foot hold in future space exploration, we will have no entitlement and therefore will be paying through the nose for use of things like space elevator, Fusion, etc. That's if we can even get permission to use something like this. Granted, it could still be cheaper than what we are paying now to send kilograms into space if someone else was to build a space elevator first without our help.

IN MY POINT OF VIEW IT WILL BE BETTER IF ALL THE NATIONS TOGETER MADE I TEAME IN EXPLORING AND FIND SOLUTIONS ABOUT HOW MORE PEOPLE COME CLOSER TO THE MOON

I think we need to be in the race for a space elevator or something like it. A high altitude launch station, which would make space travel much cheaper, safer and easier.I would like to see one of these used as a station on the way to the moon. Where we should try to eventually build a moon habitat for Humans........Next step explore the moon more, and launch missions from the Lunar surface to Mars. As far as exploring the moon, maybe explore by drilling.

In High School I participated in the Mars settlement program twice, and in College the Texas Space Grant Consortium. I learned a lot at all the events, and wouldn't have been able too if it was not for knowledge previously attained by space exploration.

I feel the U.S. needs to explore our solar system, with a grain of salt,we know titan ,saturn's moon,may have good atmospheric pressure,it is one in a half times earth's ,but it's lakes are made up of methane which we could run our car's on ,but we would need oxygen masks to live there, we would have no chance to live there every thing would freeze,Mars is another example,mars has carbon dioxide ,but it would take decades to even try to create life there,you would have to try to melt the ice cap there,and the moon has no atmosphere ,so do I need to go on,mercury,and jupiter are way to hot ,jupiter is a gas giant there is just no possible way to live there,venus is so hot and has a very high atmospheric pressure that it would crush you,we know our sun is going to burn out and turn into a big giant,to the point of roasting all the planets,I feel we need to figure out a better plan for our future,even another solar system if time doesn't run out spending money on unnecessary projects in the future and not figuring out were the main topic!!!!

I think USA should lead the space exploration becoz thru these we will get to know more about our planets. Simply thru NASA we will be to explore our planets together

i think USA should lead the space exporation coz thru these we will get to know more about our planets their environment,simply thru NASA we will be exploring our planets together.

I think that the US should lead the way in space exploration so the rest of us don't have to pay for it..................hang on that will mean that they will have to exploit third world countries even more, start more wars to protect their oil interests and have even more trade tariffs.

Americans are explorers. There are tangible benefits to an active space program in the products that are developed that can be used for non-space purposes, but the real benefit is the example it sets. Strive for more. Explore. The beauty of exploration is you don't know what you'll discover until you do it.

I think striving to get a man on Mars is extremely important. Just as NASA got a man on the moon during the space race against Russia. It was tough, but it was done and I think Mars is the next step. More importantly though, the US needs to keep the lead in space since we loosing any lead we had, in almost everything else.

I would hope that our government will not allow our space program to faulter due to a poor economy. I am poor and I would rather see us reach out into space than drop money to bailout companies that "behaved" badly! PLEASE KEEP THE USA IN THE GAME AND IN THE LEAD!!! ITS OUR FUTURE AND THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN!!!

I've read that "The first country to deploy a space elevator will have a 95% cost advantage and could potentially control all space activities". I've heard the Europeans talking about doing one and the Japanese seem to be leading the way, but what about the US?

I think it is important that the US remain in the lead for space exploration. Now with other nations trying to land on the moon, the space elevator and such, I feel we are losing ground. More important though is the study of the effect of the asteriod Apophis on the planet when it passes in 2029.