Last week, Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronuatics, filed House Resolution 6063, the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2008. Joining him as co-sponsors of the legislation were Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN), Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, Congressman Ralph Hall (R-TX), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science and Technology, and Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. Today, it was unanimously approved by the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
Overall, this legislation is solid and sound. It would provide $19.2 billion for NASA in FY2009. It specifies that the mission of NASA should continue to include the establishment of a permanent human presence on the Moon and it also states that Mars should be an eventual destination for human missions. The twin goals of returning astroanuts to the Moon and eventually sending an manned expedition to Mars are a top priority for the Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration.
A particularly welcome clause in the legislation is the authorization of an additional $1 billion to accelerate the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Ares 1 rocket. Given the five-year gap that is currently expected to exist between the final flight of the Space Shuttle and the first flight of Orion, the need to shorten this time period is of critical importance. We can expect, however, that this particular allocation will come under attack as the bill works its way through the legislative process.
Regarding the proposed lunar outpost (which shall appropriately be named the "Neil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost"), the legislation mandates that it need not be staffed by personnel at all times in order to remain operational. This makes logical sense on a certain level, but we also feel that NASA must avoid the temptation to establish an outpost where astronauts are entirely redundant. The main goal should be the creation of an outpost where human astronauts will be able to live and work for long periods of time. The legislation might be made more effective if it mandated a goal of human occupancy of the outpost for a certain portion of each year, six months being one possibility.
Another interesting item of note is that the legislation instructs NASA to "take all necessary steps" to fly an additional Shuttle mission to the International Space Station in order to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Because the AMS is not critical to the functions of the ISS, its delivery has been in doubt for many years. The decision to fly the AMS is complicated. On one hand, it is an amazing scientific experiment that has cost the international community $1.5 billion to create. On the other hand, tere is an urgent need to retire the Space Shuttle in order to focus NASA resources more fully on the Moon-Mars Initiative. While the Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration supports the decision to fly the AMS, we also believe that the Shuttle must still be retired as soon as possible and that this one additional mission should not be seen as a justification for further Shuttle missions.
The legislation also provides for the "restarting and sustaining" the production of material to power radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which will be crucial to future robotic missions in deep space. While this will not please the anti-nuclear activists who routinely protest such missions, it does please the Committee for he Advocacy of Space Exploration.
The bill is not perfect. It does not mention the Ares V rocket and it could have had a stronger emphasis on manned Mars missions following the establishment of the lunar outpost. But all things considered, it is good legislation and the Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration will work hard to make sure it has a successful passage through the legislative process.
