NASA’s Moon Blueprint For An Audience Of One

Keith’s note: According to NASA “As NASA builds a blueprint for human exploration throughout the solar system for the benefit of humanity, the agency released Tuesday the outcomes from its first Architecture Concept Review, a robust analysis process designed to align NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration strategy and codify the supporting architecture.” There are no firm dates for this “Blueprint” In the new Strategy and Objectives document issued a week or so ago the budget for this whole Moon to Mars thing, when mentioned, is discussed as more of an irritant that NASA cannot fix or something it simply works around i.e. “Financial resilience: In the face of inevitable budgetary constraints, rather than abandon the rigorously defined plan to accommodate a reduced budget, the architecture assists with maximizing potential. The strategy and resulting wireframe help prioritize efforts, as well as identify opportunities when the resource environment improves‘. (page 14) This is government double-speak at its finest. The Blueprint goes on to spend 90% of its time patting itself on the back for all of the previous notional plans that NASA has released with large portions of the latest docuent simply repeating what was published elsewhere i.e. In its earlier Moon to Mars Objectives document issued in September 2022. And there are more jargon-laden things to be found here. Of course this committee-drafted consensus document (as is the case with the earlier ones) begs the question: who is the audience for these reports? Certainly not the general public. In this most recent case, it is for an audience of one (the Vice President) and to check off an action item for the sleepy National Space Council folks. Nowhere has NASA ever bothered to come up with a “where are we going and why are we going” synopsis – one that rationalizes the billions already spent – and the billions yet to be spent; why all of the cost overruns and launch schedule slips are unimportant such that you can just let them be forgotten; and what the end result to an actual taxpayer will be when all is said and done. But why start now?