New Candidate Responses On Space Policy
ScienceDebate2016 Answers, ScienceDebate.org
“16. Space – There is a political debate over America’s national approach to space exploration and use. What should America’s national goals be for space exploration and earth observation from space, and what steps would your administration take to achieve them?”
Hillary Clinton (D): “President Kennedy’s challenge in 1962 to go to the Moon within a decade electrified the nation, prompted a long period of American leadership in science and technology, and spurred a generation of innovators.
In the decades since, we have explored the sun and every planet in our solar system; mapped the surface and studied the atmosphere of Mars and confirmed the presence of water on the Red Planet; discovered new solar systems with Earth-like planets; mapped the distribution of galaxies in the universe; observed black holes, dark matter, and dark energy; built programs to monitor our ozone layer and the catastrophic impact of global climate change; and identified and mapped near-Earth asteroids as a first step to protect our planet from a major asteroid impact. The International Space Station stands as the largest and most complex international technological project in history and has been key to understanding the response of the human body to long periods in zero gravity. And in recent years, new companies have sprung up that offer the promise of innovative approaches to transporting cargo and, eventually, humans in space. Americans have always been willing to think big, take risks, and push forward. These pillars will continue to underpin what America does in space, just as they define who we are as a people.
As president, my administration will build on this progress, promote innovation, and advance inspirational, achievable, and affordable space initiatives. We must maintain our nation’s leadership in space with a program that balances science, technology and exploration; protect our security and the future of the planet through international collaboration and Earth systems monitoring; expand our robotic presence in the solar system; and maximize the impact of our R&D and other space program investments by promoting stronger coordination across federal agencies, and cooperation with industry. I will work with Congress to ensure that NASA has the leadership, funding and operational flexibility necessary to work in new ways with industry, placing emphasis on inventing and employing new technologies and efficiencies to get more bang for the buck while creating jobs and growing the American economy.
Today, thanks to a series of successful American robotic explorers, we know more about the Red Planet than ever before. A goal of my administration will be to expand this knowledge even further and advance our ability to make human exploration of Mars a reality.
As a young girl, I was so inspired by America’s leadership and accomplishments in space that I wrote to NASA about becoming an astronaut. As president, I will help inspire the next generation of young Americans and do what I can to ensure that we have the world’s most exciting and advanced space program, one that meets our highest human aspirations in a world where the sky is no longer the limit.”
Donald Trump (R): “Space exploration has given so much to America, including tremendous pride in our scientific and engineering prowess. A strong space program will encourage our children to seek STEM educational outcomes and will bring millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in investment to this country. The cascading effects of a vibrant space program are legion and can have a positive, constructive impact on the pride and direction of this country. Observation from space and exploring beyond our own space neighborhood should be priorities. We should also seek global partners, because space is not the sole property of America. All humankind benefits from reaching into the stars.”
Keith’s note: Gary Johnson did not respond. Jill Stein is against space commerce and military uses of space.
“stronger coordination across federal agencies, and cooperation with industry” A significant point.
Situation normal (and such) !!! No true vision, no true goal, no real understanding of the potential problems and roadblocks of the next 40 yeas, just glittering generalities. This continued path is NOT inspirational and as such does not really accomplish anything on a social or global level. Life is too short for these narrow minded people to make such inferences. Neither of them will be here to see humans on Mars given the current rate of advancement and as such they really don’t care to push any significant objective or follow an achievable path.
It is way too soon to judge what either candidate would do as President. Impressive that HRC is willing to say this much at this point and Trump obviously “phoned his in”. That said – the NASA human spaceflight program is currently in such a shambles that it would take some serious china breaking to make significant progress. Trump is much more likely to do that than Clinton.
So by the end of September, everyone expects this new big splash about taking humans to Mars from a certain entrepreneurial American dude.
I wonder if we’ll get a comment from a candidate before election about this thing. Couldn’t be better timed.
Folks are either passionately against spending on space exploration or passionately for it. Some have a livelihood stake it one side or the other, others don’t. Politicians running for office seem to like to not rock that space boat either way and when they do it pitches them to the sharks. Remember lunar colonies?
Actually, most people are positive on anything we do in space. The problem is that most dont really know what we do in space and the media and state of our educational system does not help our cause.
I’ve heard a significant percentage who want to spend that money on social programs. Elon’s money should be divided up into social programs, NASA’s, etc. People are starving, so let’s stop shooting money into space and spend it on food for starving people somewhere.
You’re correct though, not enough knowledge of what space spending actually buys.
Not sure Elon would agree with you. Let’s see. Give a man a fish and you have food for a day. Teach him how to fish and you’ve given him the ability to feed himself.
Cheers
And build a lake for folks to fish in and you create a fishing industry and feed a community. I know, but some other folks think food should just fall from heaven like mana.
BTW, I had to edit that comment heavily to keep Keith from deleting it for being over political…I hope it was enough. If not then sorry, Keith.
In practice the government cannot generally switch money between unrelated programs. Each competes independently for funding against the equivalent tax cuts.
Nervertheless, the mindset is out there and some politicians cater to them. The country (both government and private enterprise) has to spend money building things just to keep things, well, growing. Some folks just don’t understand that. Like BeanCounterDownUnder said.
Really?
Ya. It also sounded to me like someone very knowledgeable wrote most of her comments and she closed with her own thoughts there in that last paragraph. It sounded like Trump took some general advice and then spoke it all out in his own style. She gave more policy future hints, if you read carefully between the lines. They both seem to spell out Obama 2.0.
As for NASA’s human spaceflight program…I think you mean “Human Space Launch Program”. The ISS has NASA crew aboard, and flies in space…well, flies in orbit anyway.
It suggest that even at this early stage Mrs. Clinton has someone on her staff knowledgeable about space.
Yes, nothing new. They are for NASA, they are for space, they will continue things as they are. In short don’t rock the boat.
I wonder who will be on the winner’s new presidential commission on space? Of course once the great report is done they will have their mandatory “Kennedy moment” photo-op, then forget NASA even exists.
The real news is that folks like Jeff Bezos are providing the vision they lack. It will be great to see the reaction when New Glenn flies while SpaceX shakes off the current setback and moves forward. Of course the President at the time will take credit for it:-)
Godspeed, New Glenn 🙂
TLDR version: we’ve done good stuff, we should keep doing good stuff, don’t ask me how to do that good stuff.
Affordable space initiatives+ability to Mars => speaks volumes.
A 3B/yr rocket and capsule is not good stuff. Ambitions?
– beyond LEO vs ability of HSF to Mars
– trillion dollar economy vs affordable space initiatives
About the only thing more comical than beyond LEO would be stating the myth: ‘the moon is a proving ground for Mars’ or the ‘trillion dollar economy’ will occur without affordable initiatives.
As far as goals, the elephants in the room would need to be cancelled. At least one group stated ‘SLS should not be built’.
isn’t it still Lori Garver?
I am told that some senators believe Ms. Garver wants to kill the SLS and therefore will not confirm her.
You have been “told”? Your source/diagnosis is simplistic and incorrect.
Don’t get me wrong. I have said in a variety of forums that I believe she is easily the best qualified person for the job. She has a combination of strategic vision, technical insight, and political experience that we do not often see, and I believe she places a high priority on reducing the cost of human spaceflight.
She seemed to say more than he did, for what it is worth. From these responses it sounds like they will both just go with the current flow. Leave it alone and let current initiatives play out as scheduled. They both seem like they would be cost-conscious, and want to see benefit from the money spent. Essentially, “let’s not make this an election-year issue”, which is par for the course. Every time politicians try to stand out in the crowd on space policy during an election year they seem to get smacked down for it.
More words, same message. That is informative by itself.
Yep. One used a lot of words to say nothing, the other used less words to say nothing. Johnson used no words, which probably said more. Not that Stein is relevant, but I’m a bit curious what is meant by “against space commerce”? Seems like a rather broad and ignorant position.
Hopefully both of them took a few minutes to read what was written for them and learned something.
Press releases. Nothing more.
Once again leadership will fall to Congress.
Yes. Although the NASA Administrator really should be taking responsibility for providing that leadership by advising the Congress and the President on what should be done. So, who will be the next Administrator???
The problem with space and politics is that it’s so low on the priorities that no one is going to risk saying anything (Gringrich/moon base) or doing anything (Kerry/Bunny suit) that their opponent can make political hay out of. Answers like this are written by some staffer with orders to not be controversial.
I know Keith hates the partisan stuff, but Trump’s statement reads like it was written by an eight year old at the bus stop on the day the assignment was due, and he was having trouble stretching it to a full paragraph.
The cascading effects are legion and can have both a positive and a constructive impact. Exploring beyond our, uh, space … neighbourhood, as we reach into the stars.