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From the Executive DirectorNew Beginnings
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Louis D. Friedman
Executive Director of The Planetary Society Credit: The Planetary Society |
September 2, 2010
This is my final "from the Executive Director" column, but not my final column. As I said, I am very much staying with the Society – with a little less responsibility and a little freer spirit, but still very involved. (Of course my LightSail program direction will remain a serious responsibility).
My next column will have a new name – still undecided and suggestions are welcome.
Bill Nye will now speak as Executive Director, and he has chosen to name his column, "Your Place in Space." I await it with much optimism.
I am not in a retrospective mood. Musing on the past is likely in my future – but a little further out. I am thinking about the present and the future in space, and I want to comment on three exciting new approaches to space exploration in which I am so very lucky to be involved.
New #1 – The new international approach to exploring Mars. The United States and Europe have realized they can't plan the next set of robotic landers on Mars as national ventures. There is too much ambition, and too little money. This is just for the next two landers and rovers (in 2016/2018). Imagine how much more and how much deeper international collaboration will be required for the much larger projects: robotic Mars sample return and then human missions to Mars. Increased cooperation puts us on the right road. Next year should move us faster along the road – the U.S. will launch Mars Science Laboratory with its Curiosity Rover, and Russia will launch its Phobos sample return mission and the Chinese Yinghuo Mars orbiter. Add Russia and China to the mix, and Japan with its sample return experience on Hayabusa, and we have quite an exciting 21st century exploration of Mars to look forward to.
New #2 – The new human space exploration plan: for the first time looking beyond the Moon into the solar system. If we can get past the special interests looking to preserve the past, I may actually get to see (assuming my health holds up) humans in interplanetary space – on an asteroid and on to Mars. Of course, we are well aware the new way of doing business – engaging the private industry to do transportation while NASA focuses on exploration – is controversial. But it is a new way that is necessary if we are to have the money and talent resources for grand exploration ventures, and I am excited to help make it happen. We also know we have to do a better job exciting the public about the new plan – and we are working on it.
New #3 – The new way of building spacecraft: small, really small. Nano-spacecraft (or maybe pico-spacecraft) are the only way we will do interstellar probes, and the Planetary Society's development of the ultra-light LightSail is the first step toward that great goal. (Nano-spacecraft refer to spacecraft between 1-10 kg, while pico-spacecraft are less than 1 kg). You make it happen – our ability to do this new venture. We make it happen – putting together a great team to build the spacecraft and the sail and then fly the mission. But as much as I am excited about solar sailing, I see even more immediate excitement coming from the nano-spacecraft developments. We expect a new era of enabling missions at lower costs and with more capabilities in Earth orbit, in deep space and someday to the stars.
Global change is underway. The physical change (like that to the climate) is indeed alarming – and we in the space program have a responsibility to use our talents and capabilities to understand the processes of climate change and how Earth reacts to environmental changes. We do that by exploration, science and technology – something we (space folks) are good at. But the three developments I cited above tell of another global change underway: how we conduct space exploration, how our society gets together to undertake great challenges. It will be internationally, cooperatively – harnessing resources from the public and private sectors as well as from many nations and organizations, and creatively – with new technologies and innovation allowing more to be done for less.
Although I get pretty crotchety and negative when I watch Congress trying to legislate how to build rockets and construct a space program, that changes when I realize how lucky I am and we are to part of these new ventures that are taking us further, faster into the future. I intend to stay on for the ride and thank all our members (past, present, AND FUTURE) for allowing me to ride with them
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