It’s Worse Than They Thought

Today’s Human Space Flight Review Committee, or simply the Augustine Committee, meeting was depressing…there’s no other word for it. What came out of today’s public meeting was a stark and honest assessment of just how far this nation’s space program has regressed and the impossible budgetary landscape in which NASA finds itself. Check out this this link for a few articles about today.

You can follow the Augustine Committee on Twitter at NASA_HSF.

If any of you want to take an active role in getting more money for manned exploration, there are a few of things you can do.

If you are a member of a professional society such as the AIAA, contact them and raise a ruckus for it to get it’s manned space support game face on. If you are a member of another professional society, such as IEEE or ASME, contact it none-the-less as it may willing to push space if enough members request.

Join one of the space advocacy groups now, excluding the Planetary Society and Mars Society as they have not been friends of Constellation (FOC). The greater the number of members, and therefor the budget, of pro-Constellation groups, the more outreach they can do to reach voters, which means more clout they will have when addressing the White House and Congress on boosting NASA’s funding.

Here’s a couple of groups that are Friends of Constellation (FOC’s):
National Space Society
Coalition For Space Exploration

Write the White House and your elected federal representatives, written or typed. Believe it or not, letters have a large impact, much more so than phone calls or emails, which is not to say don’t call or email those folks either. I’ve been told by two Senate aides that a written letter can represent 50-100 votes.

Incremental Steps Towards Beyond LEO Exploration

To Be Bold Or Not