Griffin: Confusing Messages on the Need for ISS

NASA seeks help for human exploration of Mars, New Scientist

“NASA chief Michael Griffin appealed on Wednesday to the leaders of the world’s leading space agencies to join NASA in its bid to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars. Unless they do, he said, there will be little point in completing the International Space Station. The ISS will make a perfect staging post for such missions, he believes.”

Editor’s note: It is kind of odd to see Mike Griffin taunting the nations who signed on to build the ISS several decades ago with the idea that the U.S. might not meet its part of that decades-old committment if these nations don’t help bail NASA out of its most recent task: the VSE. Also, it is a little confusing to see Griffin cite the value of the ISS for Moon and Mars missions while simultaneously eviscerating the very science the ISS was supposed to be doing (biomedical) and eliminating the hardware required for that resarch – all of which would enable such long duration missions to be accomplished safely and productively.