Hollow Promises From Stealthy Inept Space Advocacy Organizations
Keith’s note: Two months ago the stealthy, non-transparent Pioneering Space National Summit was held in Washington DC. A few days later an Alliance for Space Development thing was announced. Then the people not involved in these earlier events held their own competing stealthy Humans Orbiting Mars Workshop. All of these events promised that they’d eventually publish or release things to tell the rest of us what they talked about – and what they planned to do with our tax dollars. Tick tock. Nothing but crickets. So … where is this stuff? Why does anyone pay attention to these organizations?
– Alliance for Space Development: Yawn – Yet Another Space Group, earlier post
– Space Advocates Work Together By Not Working Together, earlier post
– Move Along. This Is Not The Space Policy You’re Looking For., earlier post
– Yet Another Plan For Outer Space, earlier post
– Making Space Policy In Secret (Again), earlier post
– Good News Everyone: Another Closed Door Humans to Mars Thing, earlier post
– Stealthy Humans Orbiting Mars Workshop Update, earlier post
I’ve been thinking about your reports on these events, wondering at the same time about about supposed work products.
I conclude that democracy is a very messy business that never knows what the left and right hands are doing.
And there is this: with so little really happening in space, satisfaction comes only from gathering in small groups to share the dream. It is there- in colloquy large and small- that the dream is kept alive, in visions and imaginings, in breathing the same air with those of equal passion. It will have to do until there’s hardware, at least 🙂
I think you hit on something. Look at the SLS/Orion program.
The next launch is in 2018 (maybe) and uncrewed. The next flight is in 2021 or 22 and will repeat a 1968 flight.
The next flight is 2024-25 and has no agreed mission.
Planetary missions are 1 every year or 2 and take much of a decade to arrive. So if you’re an enthusiast, what do you do? You have glitzy meetings.
If you’re an enthusiast, you root for companies like SpaceX who is providing services for far less money than old space. And, you get called a fan-boy and listen to others call Falcon 9 a “hobby rocket” and the like.
It is odd that space advocacy, unlike many other public concerns, has even it’s grass roots looking for smoke filled rooms. Movements advocating greater attention in other areas of society tend to want to get information out there, some factual, some biased, some lies. Still, getting attention to a problem, say Alzheimers, with the intent to raise awareness and funding, typically results in more reports, studies, and numbers. A lot of grass roots level space camp advocacy seems to have taken the opposite tack for years-as if assuming facts and figures will not suffice, avoiding numbers, and thinking shady dealings and vague pronouncements will do the trick. Perhaps this is a reaction to the way upper level leadership across NASA and industry has driven what is perceived meddling somewhat underground, very much toward vague statements so obtusely trying to satisfy everyone as to become meaningless?