Stanford Space Panel: Send Astronauts to Mars and Beyond

A conference that has drawn flack from Michael Griffin has come to some conclusions that the NASA administrator would probably agree with:

• It is time to go beyond LEO with people as explorers. The purpose of sustained human exploration is to go to Mars and beyond. The significance of the Moon and other intermediate destinations is to serve as steppingstones on the path to that goal.
• Bringing together scientists, astronauts, engineers, policy analysts, and industry executives in a single conversation created an environment where insights across traditional boundaries occurred.
• Human space exploration is undertaken to serve national and international interests. It provides important opportunities to advance science, but science is not the primary motivation.
• Sustained human exploration requires enhanced international collaboration and offers the United States an opportunity for global leadership.
• NASA has not received the budget increases to support the mandated human exploration program as well as other vital parts of the NASA portfolio, including space science, aeronautics, technology requirements, and especially Earth observations, given the urgency of global climate change.

Use the links to the left to contact the President, Congress and presidential candidates to call their attention to the budget shortfall and the opportunity that the USA has to explore space if our nation chooses to. Tell them that you believe that we should.

Griffin's Own Words on a Manned Asteroid Initiative

Leonard David, of LiveScience Blogs, got a direct email from Michael Griffin today regarding the recent conference about replacing the Moon mission with an asteroid mission. Mike's commentary highlight the need for people like actionforspace.com readers to show solidarity and support to the next president and congress in public buy-in for the constellation program's current goals and an accelerated expansion to include manned missions to asteroids.

“As I have often stated, human missions to NEOs have no stronger advocate than I, and I hope that a future Congress will add such authorization to future guidance for NASA, without altering other goals. But in other respects, I believe that the 2005 Authorization Act for NASA remains the finest policy framework for U.S. civil space activities that I have seen in forty years."

Read the whole article here.