NRC human spaceflight report says NASA strategy can’t get humans to Mars “John Logsdon, professor emeritus of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, said the report has a familiar ring to it. “They go through all this negative analysis and still conclude we ought to go to Mars. No one ever says, ‘Let’s lower our ambitions.’ It’s always, ‘Increase the budget,’ not ‘Lower ambitions,’” he said. As for going to […]

NASA Should Maintain Long-Term Focus on Mars as “Horizon Goal” for Human Space Exploration “The technical analysis completed for this study shows that for the foreseeable future, the only feasible destinations for human exploration are the moon, asteroids, Mars, and the moons of Mars,” Lunine added. “Among this small set of plausible goals, the most distant and difficult is putting human boots on the surface of Mars, thus that is […]

Keith’s note: The Space Studies board is meeting jointly on April 3-4, 2014 in Washington , DC [Agenda  register online]. The meeting starts today at 8:30 am but is closed. The public (open) session starts at 10:50 am. Marcia Smith reports that Charlie Bolden will be there.

Keith’s note: The NAS Space Studies Board is meeting today. Here is the webex Link that the NAS doesn’t want you to know about. Their PR office told me several weeks ago that they would be letting media know about webcasting in advance of their meetings. They never sent me anything despite their pledge to do so. You have to know which internal NASA webpage to go to in order […]

A Last Chance to Tell the NRC *YOUR* Ideas for Human Spaceflight — Via Twitter, Space Policy Online “The National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Committee on Human Spaceflight is offering everyone a last chance to provide their ideas on the future of the human spaceflight program via a Twitter chat tomorrow, October 29, 2013. This is the first time the NRC is using social media to obtain input from the public. […]

NAS SSB: Committee on Human Spaceflight Meeting Keith’s note: Only after today’s event began did the NAS Space Studies Board bother to tweet that there was a Webex feed for this meeting – something they only added to the event’s page after the fact. Bill Gerstenmaier is speaking on “Status on HSF Plans and Challenges” . Call-in toll-free number: 1-(866) 668-0721 Conference Code: 448 560 9647 Attendees in the audience […]

NAS SSB: Committee on Human Spaceflight Public and Stakeholder Opinions Panel “This meeting is closed in its entirety.” Keith’s note: Sigh, yet another NAS SSB meeting on “public and stakeholder Opinions” that is closed to the “public” and “stakeholders” i.e. the taxpayers who paid for it. As previously noted on NASA Watch, these expensive ($3.6 million) panels, composed of the usual suspects plus a few newbies, take years to churn […]

New National Research Council Report Presents Research Program for Solar and Space Physics Over the Next Decade “A new report from the National Research Council presents a prioritized program of basic and applied research for 2013-2022 that will advance scientific understanding of the sun, sun-Earth connections and the origins of “space weather,” and the sun’s interactions with other bodies in the solar system. This second decadal survey in solar and […]

Take the National Academies’ Space Studies Board Survey on NASA’s strategic Direction “In the FY2012 appropriations bill that funds NASA, Congress requested an independent study of NASA’s strategic direction. The study is being conducted by a committee of the National Research Council. The Strategic Directions Committee is listening to a wide variety of experts in aeronautics and space science and technology, space policy and programs, and communications strategy, and it […]

Space Studies Board 2010 Workshop: Sharing the Adventure with the Public “The Space Studies Board’s 2010 Workshop will explore both how these grand questions focus on the nation’s space research program and how best to convey its value and excitement to the public. The workshop will bring together leading scientists and experts from the communications and social marketing sectors to share lessons learned and best practices. A summary of the […]