WEEKLY WHINE

Interaction: Getting back to it

Myers: Good day, and welcome once again to Interaction, the sixty minutes where the end comes last. We're in Washington, DC, USA today, just outside the headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was just inside here that US president George W Bush, or "Extra Crispy" Bush as we like to call him, gave a speech on WED 14 JAN 2004 outlining the US's future plans for human space travel over the next seventeen years. Is this a wise use of NASA's money? Should we be more patient or less patient, or should we maintain our present level of patience? Or should we do everything at once without regard to the consequences? Here to discuss this is a panel. I'm Debbie Myers. With me now, first, is the director of the Space Policy Centre of Maryland, Mr Arvin Gaskhul.

Gaskhul: Good evening.

Myers: The chair of the Department of Space Travel at the University of East West Virginia, Ms Anne Randall.

Randall: Hello.

Myers: A retired space systems engineer who served on seven important science missions, Ms Aurelie Dünarcza.

Dünarcza: Good to be here.

Myers: And finally, an artist and the author of the book Famous People, Famous Places, Mr Anthony Sphigout.

Sphigout: Hello Debbie.

Myers: Thank you all for being with us here today. Before we go to the questions, we'll check in with Mr Ryan Bershwin in New York. Ryan?

Bershwin: Thank you Debbie. Well, here in New York, reaction to Bush's space plans has been fairly quiet. On Wall Street, there was little response on the big boards in the last few minutes of the trading day, when the announcement was made. Other than a few editorials expressing lukewarm interest, the newspapers here have had little to say about these plans. In policy, NASA have already begun to reorganise, adding an additional associate administrator. That will be Rear Admiral Craig Steidle of the US Navy, and he will head up the new Office of Exploration Systems. Debbie?

Myers: Thanks Ryan. We'll check in with you some more as the programme continues. Arvin, we'll go to you first. What are your reactions to Mr Bush's speech this week?

Gaskhul: Well, quite frankly, I was shocked. I was expecting a firm commitment to land humans on Mars by 2020. The president is simply not thinking ambitiously enough. He should be ready to fund these programs to a value much greater than the US$1,000,000,000 amount cited this week.

Myers: An important consideration there. Anne, would you agree?

Randall: I should say not. Any space programme should be prepared to take small steps before big ones. And medium sized steps between the small ones and big ones. And very small steps before the small ones. And fairly large steps, but not overwhelmingly large, between the medium sized ones and big ones. And... what was I talking about?

Myers: That's something we should all stop to ponder. Aurelie, is the president's timetable really achievable?

Dünarcza: Maybe.

Myers: Well, harsh words there. Anthony, how will advanced space travel affect the population as a whole?

Sphigout: It just means that we're one step closer to a spacefaring civilisation, the kind that we were supposed to have by now if it wasn't for all the closed minded politicians who refused to spend money on the only interesting thing that the government ever does.

Myers: Hmmm. Let's discuss that in a bit more detail. Aurelie, do you feel that space exploration should have been funded at higher levels these past several decades?

Dünarcza: Absolutely. If we'd been researching this continuously since the 1960s, we would not only be able to travel to the Moon, we would have brought costs down considerably. By this point we should have a lunar base, each mission to which costs under ten million dollars.

Randall: Well, it's highly doubtful that just flying missions a lot will bring costs down. One hundred fourteen Space Shuttle missions have not reduced prices significantly. Traditional economics just don't apply in the harsh vacuum of space, where nobody can hear you scream, or get drunk, or fall off a chair, or belch, or argue loudly, or kick yourself, or fart, or... what was I talking about?

Myers: Um, Arvin, how do you feel space exploration should have been funded?

Gaskhul: Much more. Waaaay more. I mean like huge bags of cash driving up in armoured trucks to NASA headquarters. We should be ready to colonise asteroids by 2030. Otherwise humans just aren't as cool as we thought.

Myers: Well, before we move on to questions, let me go back to Ryan and ask, quickly, for the details on NASA's decision this week to put an end to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Bershwin: Debbie, NASA are still finalising the safety criteria for future Space Shuttle flights, but one thing on which the agency will not move is the requirement to access the International Space Station, from which the orbiter is to be viewed from all angles to look for any ceramic tile damage. Since HST orbits at an inclination of about 28° rather than 52° of the ISS, this would seem to preclude any future servicing missions, including the Servicing Mission 4 that NASA had been working on and were hoping to conduct in advance of whenever HST might finally fail. That now looks, though, that it will not happen. Debbie?

Myers: All right, thanks Ryan. We'll now turn to the questions you've posed for us. You can use any of the methods shown to reach us, provided you know how to use them. And we will find out if you don't know how to use them, like Ms Sofia Rydbagspor of Aalborg, Denmark, who tried to pour coffee into her telephone. But right now we have someone who does know how to use the telephone, and it's Edmundo from Teplice, Czech Republic. Edmundo, are you there?

Edmundo in Teplice: Am I on the show?

Myers: Yes, you are. What is your question?

Edmundo in Teplice: Wow! I'm on! This is the happiest moment of my life! Hang on, let me turn on the VCR. Ooh! I can't wait to tell my -

Myers: Edmun-

Edmundo in Teplice: - friends in Colombia! They'll be all, Did you get on, and I'll be all, I so got on, and they'll be all, No you didn't, and I'll be all, Yeah, I did, and -

Myers: What is -

Edmundo in Teplice: - they'll be all, What are you smoking this time, and I'll be all, Just a pack of unfiltereds, and they'll be all, Is it the low carb kind, and I'll be all -

Myers: Edmun-

Edmundo in Teplice: - Hang on, let me check, no it's not, but it's still pretty good, and they'll be all, Dude, you rule, and I'll be all, You know it, and aaaaaaaahhhh...

Myers: Edmundo's question, I believe, was about the relevance of the Moon if the ultimate goal is Mars. Aurelie, what would a lunar base do for us?

Dünarcza: It's be really cool!

Myers: Ummm, anything else?

Dünarcza: Not really. Actually, a lunar base doesn't help one reach Mars or any other planet.

Myers: Well, what about the helium 3 deposits that the Moon may have?

Dünarcza: I don't recall the president throwing fusion research into that list of things he's funding. Maybe I missed that part of the speech. I mean, I think I would have noticed it if it was there. Maybe I didn't notice it because it wasn't there!

Myers: Um, I see. What -

Bershwin: Debbie, if I could just jump in for a moment, I've got a transcript of Mr Bush's speech here with me, and I can verify that there was no mention of fusion whatsoever.

Myers: Indeed. Thank you Ryan. Anthony, what benefits would we get from a lunar base?

Sphigout: Well, aside from the knowledge we sorely need about the human response to partial gravity, we would like to show that we can in fact live on the surface of other worlds. Visitors like Neil Armstrong up through to Jack Schmitt have already stayed in the equivalent of lunar hotels, but now we would like to establish the equivalent of lunar apartments. It is absolutely ridiculous to suggest that there is no benefit from a lunar base, because it would just totally rule.

Myers: With that, we'll have to hurry along to one more question, as we're running short on time. A facsimile from Wayne Jackson in La Mesa, CA, USA asks when he'll be able to buy a ticket to the Moon for under US$5,000. Arvin?

Gaskhul: Don't hold your breath.

Myers: Why not?

Gaskhul: You'd pass out first.

Myers: But when will travelling to the Moon become possible for everyday people?

Gaskhul: Well, even if Bush's woefully underfunded ideas become reality, and a lunar base begins to be populated in 2020, I think it will be at least twenty more years before any sort of commercial venture establishes itself on the Moon. And even then it may well be the very same lunar base that NASA built and is turning over to the private sector so it can focus on its next goal, landing humans on Saturn.

Randall: I'm not sure I'd go with you on that one, because things are really heating up in the private sector. It looks as though someone is going to claim the X Prize this year, and once that happens, nobody will be willing to just sit there, and there will be further prizes to build space hotels, lunar bases, Mars bases, Saturn bases, asteroid bases, comet bases, third bases, acids and bases, databases, touching bases, military bases, closed bases, open bases, ... what was I talking about?

Myers: I can't help you there. We'll just have to put a stop to this edition of Interaction right here. Thanks go to Mr Anthony Sphigout, Ms Aurelie Dünarcza, Ms Anne Randall, and Mr Arvin Gaskhul for joining us today, as well as our correspondent in New York, Mr Ryan Bershwin. Next week we'll travel to Italy to examine the fallout from the crisis at Parmalat, where we'll talk with two former executives at that company, an Italian bankruptcy expert, and a film director who's created an instructional video on accounting practises. Until then, good night.

Sphigout: You know what else would totally rule?

Dünarcza: A Dyson sphere! I've always wanted one of those! We'd just have to be careful to do all the construction work at night.