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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #365

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 365

Today's Topics:
            NSS Testemony House of Reps I
           Re: Assaying likely asteroids from afar
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Date: 11 Apr 89 04:29:00 GMT
From: arisia!cdp![e-mail]
Subject: NSS Testemony House of Reps I



************************************************************************
*                                                                      *
*    The following is a 300+ line text file, it would be advantagous   *
*    To down load it and read it on your local computer!               *
*                                                                      *
*    Description:  Charles Walker; National Space Society President    *
*                                  Former Shuttle Payload Specialist.  *
*    Congressional Testemony; April 2, 1989.                           *
*                                                                      *
*    Enjoy!                                Jordan Katz                 *
*                                          NSS BBS Co-ordinator        *
*                                                                      *
************************************************************************

Mr. Chairman, and Members of the subcommittee:

    Thank you for this opportunity today to express the hopes,
dreams and aspirations of the National Space Society before this
hearing on the institutional issues facing the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration. The Space Society is a growing
organization, representing the shared vision of upwards of 25,000
members and 125 chapters primarily situated here in the United
States.

    The National Space Society is a family of organizations which
includes the non-profit educational `mothership', NSS; the
grassroots lobby, Spacecause; and the political action committee
Spacepac.

    So you can see that space advocates are beginning to organize
in much the same fashion as many other politically astute advocacy
groups have done in the past. Space activists are determined to
become major players on the public policy stage.

    Our vision is clear: to create a spacefaring civilization
which will establish communities beyond the Earth; to promote the
exploration and economic development of space; and to advocate the
opening of the space frontier.

    One step to realize this vision -- a vision common not only
among our members but, we believe, this nation as a whole -- is
that the National Space Society fully supports the 1990 Bush
Administration budget request for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration of $13.3 billion.

    The message, then, that the Space Society's members wish
delivered to the members of this subcommittee and your colleagues
throughout Congress is not one laden with technological arguments
or of budgetary wizardry. It is a message, plain and simple, in
the tradition of the American dream and the American spirit - we
believe that United States must be a leader on the space frontier,
or it will cease to be the great hope for human liberty and
freedom.

    Public opinion polls and the National Commission on Space,
heard our citizenry clearly articulate their common vision of an
open frontier in space...they want Americans in space...carrying
out a human adventure...pushing expansion as an economic necessity.


    As to the frequent calls for another review of our nation's
goals in space or a study on our space program -- we call for a
moratorium on the like. This nation's goals in space were stated
succinctly in the President's National Space Policy Directive. What
is needed is an integrated strategy to achieve those goals, Such
as was delineated by the National Commission on Space. The nation
should quickly develop that strategy and get on with our nation's
destiny in space.


    Further delay only exacerbates the many problems we very
likely would experience as a second-rate space power. The long term
consequences of our near-term decisions dictate that we justify
funding for the civil space program.

    We wish to submit to you that the United States can no longer
afford to weigh social programs against the attributes of the space
program. Our space enterprise is a social program...it benefits our
society by providing jobs. It promotes the general welfare and
secures our freedoms. It challenges our creative instincts. And it
harnesses our esprit de corps to transform space into, not only a
medium for exploration, but as a locale for business and commerce.

    As you know, the United States has been engaged in exploring
and utilizing space for over three decades. To assist you in
gauging just what that thirty years means in terms of productivity
and jobs for the country, I would like to call your attention to
a recently issued study by the NASA Alumni League.

    According to the report, which, incidentally will be updated
with 1990 estimates on April 20th, NASA procurement expenditures
in 1987 immediately generated 210,000 private-industry jobs and
twice as much business activity as the agency spent within a year.
The space agency's 1987 $8.6 billion procurement resulted in $17.8
billion in sales within private industry, including over $2 billion
in corporate profits and $5.6 billion in Federal, state and local
government tax revenues.

    Space agency spending, for example, created significantly more
blue-collar and lesser-skilled jobs than it did for the scientists
and engineers traditionally associated with space activities.

    This report clearly demonstrates that in terms of industry
sales and jobs every state benefits substantially from the U.S.
Space Program: indeed, most of these benefits went to states other
than those receiving the prime contract awards. The biggest state
"winners" include many that few analysts perceive as being closely
tied to the Program, such as New Jersey, Arizona, Kansas, Illinois,
Tennessee, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina.

    Among the major conclusions of this study are:

    o    The total (direct plus indirect) economic and
employment benefits are between two and three times larger than is
usually assumed, and are much more pervasive than is generally
recognized.

    o    The major beneficiaries--specific industries,
        occupations, and states--include many which have
        heretofore not been linked closely to the Space Program
        or to NASA procurement.

    o    The 1987 NASA procurement had a multiplier effect on
         the economy of 2.1 for the entire nation, and 14 states
        had a multiplier effect of 2 to 1 or greater, ranging
        from 12.1 in Indiana to 2.2 in New Jersey.


    This type of analysis, while based on well established and
validated economic methodology, has never before been applied to
the U.S. Space Program or to the NASA budget. The findings of this
study are crucial for emphasizing the total (direct + indirect)
economic benefits of NASA Programs to the nation as a whole and to
individual states and cities...in defending NASA budget
requests...and in justifying increased Federal spending for an
ambitious Space Program during the 1990s.


    In broader terms, opening the frontier of space repeats in
many ways the historical uncertainties that surrounded previous
explorations in this country.

    Recall the epic journey of Lewis and Clark, the acquisition
of new land through the Louisiana Purchase, or the investment
needed for that "frozen wasteland" called Alaska, better known in
history books as "Seward's Folly".

    Since earliest times, expansion into new regions are met by
skepticism and uncertainty of value, potential for high risk, and
fortitude required to tame an unknown environment.

    Today, space represents a new competitive territory for
commercial opportunity. New goods and services for people here on
Earth can be derived from space commerce. Tapping the unique vantage
point of space can lead to prospecting for new energy sources, and
better stewardship of our globe's delicate biosphere.

    Further, the vacuum and microgravity found in Earth orbit may
lead to improved manufacturing processes or techniques to produce
superior electronic components to life-saving pharmaceuticals.

    Simply put, given the pioneering spirit that opened up
previous frontiers, in this our newest arena economic expansion may be
as unbounded as space itself.


    The Space Society also wishes to suggest a political framework
for space supporters - NASA programs complement domestic and
international initiatives of both the Administration and the Congress.
In areas as diverse as the environment, education, economic
competitiveness, and international cooperation issues, NASA and our
nation's fledgling commercial interests can and should play a key
role. We urge you to make this point a part of the political dialogue.


    The Space Society notes the gathering support for Mission to
Planet Earth as an objective for the country's space program. My
own experiences, accumulated during three Shuttle missions, have
greatly strengthened my kinship with this exquisite Earth.

    The Earth moves in space, clearly a spaceship itself. The
atmosphere is a thin blue halo at the edge of the Earth's sphere.
The seas and oceans are jewel-like with deep blue azure and green.
And the land: infinitely textured, covered with green life, ruddy
sands or white snow. But there are signs of concern. The skies are
stained and smeared by haze. Rivers and seas are discolored with
the silt from forest-cleared land.

    Our home planet is showing visible wear - we must understand
better the interrelationships of man and the Earth's environment
on a global scale.

    We strongly urge this subcommittee to assist in the
implementation of a multi-agency plan to globally sense our
environment and better evaluate the stresses and strains placed on
our planet by our species. Our planet is painfully overdue for an
examination.

    Indeed, we should not only implement an international, global
health check of our world, but we must maintain systematic, ongoing
programs to evaluate the condition of our planet.

    The rescue of the Landsat program from an illogical early
demise was applauded by our members, and we hope that a long-term
solution can be found for its funding problems.

    There can be no end to Mission: Earth...we must maintain our
earthbound "launching pad" while we peer spaceward. When celestial
travelers from Earth return to the planet after a long voyage in
the distant future, they should find their home planet as pristine
as when they departed.


    Early this year in Phoenix, I had the pleasure of co-chairing
with our Board of Governors Chairman, Hugh Downs, a meeting of the
Society's Board members and invited dignitaries.

    At that meeting, comprised of individuals from various walks
of life...including an artificial intelligence expert to present
and former members of Congress, a movie producer and actress to
space scientists and an Apollo moonwalker...we crafted a document
which observed that humankind is, indeed, entering a new era of
dramatic exploration and discovery. Humanity's very future will
depend on human exploration of our Solar System.


    More importantly, this group declared that we have studied
far too long where we can go in space. We must now embark on the
grand adventure that awaits by initiating a "Decade of Doing."

    But let me offer some specific objectives. The National Space
Society considers as paramount the Space Station Freedom project
and a concurrent Mission: Earth program. We wish to enumerate a
long-term civil space goal:

    The expansion of the human presence and activity beyond Earth
orbit into the Solar System. Establishment of a permanent return
to the Moon as the next major step after the Space Station Freedom
would support eventual human missions to Mars and beyond.

    The Space Society sees this goal as a necessary step on the
way to opening the space frontier. From such a permanent lunar
outpost, the Moon's resources can be processed to help reduce the
cost of space exploration and development. Processed oxygen,
derived from lunar soil, can accelerate the rate at which future
frontiers could be developed. The lunar base would also assist the
opening of Mars and its valuable moons by testing and improving
space-related equipment and techniques for long duration human
space exploration. Lunar development is, in the long-term, the most
effective way to explore and develop the entire Solar System for
the benefit of all humankind.

    The establishment of the Lunar objective will set in motion
our governmental space expertise, unleash the creative and
innovative talent found in our industries, universities, and
colleges, and space the imagination of our youth who hunger for
the knowledge that America has a future is space.


    By clarifying our objectives in space -- in great measure, by
adopting the 1986 recommendations of the National Commission on
Space -- we build upon thirty years of space experience. This year
alone, Americans will be witness to privately funded space
launchings; a fly-by of the mysterious planet Neptune by our
Voyager II interplanetary probe; the launchings of the Magellan
probe to Venus and the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter; and the
deployment above the Earth of the historic Hubble Space Telescope.

    The anchoring in space of the Hubble Space Telescope deserves
special attention. In many ways, the Space Telescope is not a
telescope at all. It is a microscope : the Universe can be explored
in the most minuscule of detail. Hubble is also a time machine to
further our knowledge of our cosmic origins and perhaps our
cosmological destiny. Its light gathering power and host of
sensitive equipment will enable us to explore the possibility of
other planets circling distant stars.


    In summary, space exploration and development is part and
parcel of America's future. The benefits of becoming a spacefaring
civilization are economic, educational, environmental, political,
social and spiritual. What we learn as humanity ventures into space
can provide new perspectives on the global environment and bestow
both domestic and international benefits for the well-being of
all.

    To repeat: the greatest spinoff of the space program is not
the tangible: teflon, and Tang and jobs. Nor is it the intangible:
the promise of pharmaceuticals or faster computers.

    No, the greatest spinoff of the space program is its
uniqueness as the vehicle to our future in space, the next
frontier.

    An underlying message we would like to leave with you today
is for the members of the Congress to utilize the resources of the
new space advocates -- the National Space Society - as a trumpeter
of national opinion.Call upon us as advocates for what you and the
people believe.

    Through our family of organizations we can help this
subcommittee communicate with other members of Congress in shaping
our nation's space endeavor. National Space Society's leadership
and our entire membership are communicating the importance of space
to all levels of society, from the halls of the Congress to schools
and meetings in communities across the country and the world.

------------------------------

Date: 11 Apr 89 16:32:26 GMT
From: mentor.cc.purdue.edu!i.cc.purdue.edu![e-mail]  (Mark Gellis)
Subject: Re: Assaying likely asteroids from afar

I found the recent articles about using lasers at long range to investigate
asteroids very interesting.  A shame about the treaty that prevents us
from using such a device...or does it?

I think it would be legitimate to redefine the bomb used to power the laser
(please correct me if I am getting any details wrong) as a "power source"
rather than a weapon; after all, a weapon is something that can be used
against someone else and this device is not a nuclear explosive designed
for attacking people and territory.  As for the laser itself, is the treaty
a ban on all nuclear devices or simply nuclear bombs; if the latter, a
"nuclear laser" would not be covered anyway, now would it?

Plus, if we simply fired this thing at the asteroid and got our information,
and no one was hurt because it had, in fact, been used as a scientific
instrument and not a weapon (that is, we present the Soviets with a fait
accompli) what are they going to do about it?  Complain to the UN?  They'll
look stupid and they know it.  Fire their own lasers at other asteroids
to prevent an "asteroid gap"?  Good!  More data will come in and we will
all know more about the asteroids.  Use it as an excuse to build their
own nuke weapons in space?  Possibly, but then WE would have a legitimate
right to complain to the UN and, besides, for the time being, the Soviets
want to build their economy, not new weapons, so as long as we did not
present a threat (which might be achieved by immediately sharing all
data we get about the asteroids with them, or something like that), we
could probably get away it.

Any thoughts on this?

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V9 #365
*******************