Congress held a meeting today on what NASA ’s overall purpose should await like under the next few presidents . But accord on just what that purpose might be — as witnesses discourse everything from the plan Mars misstep to a proposal for a space station hotel — seemed far by .
“ If we treated the Air Force like we do NASA , we ’d have no flying aircraft . We can not decide every few years what we want the purpose of the space program to be , ” said former NASA decision maker Mike Griffin to the House Committee on Science , Space , and Technology this morning .
The Mars mission was a topic of heavy treatment . At one point , Congressman Ed Perlmutter ( D - CO ) waved a MARS 2033 bumpersticker over his drumhead ( whether he brought it with him to the group meeting for that specific purpose , or plainly has it on him at all times was unclear)—only to have his colleague Congressman Jim Bridenstine ( R - OK ) bust that perhaps Republicans should print their own Mars 2032 bumper stickers .
But Mars was far from the only destination that came up ; both the Moon and the Space Station feature .
“ If God want us to go to Mars , he ’d have given us a Moon to rehearse on first , ” enunciate Griffin . He suggested a design whereby astronauts would first spend several month on the space post , before heading to the Moon for a six - calendar month stay . Only after that would a Mars missionary station make mother wit , he sound out .
Astronaut Eileen Collins threw out the idea of a space post hotel : “ There are plenty of tourists and people that have money that would have intercourse to go up in blank and live on on the station . ” With the money saved there , she argue , we could advertize out further into deep place . “ If we could discover a secret company that would take over the station and deal it like a hotel , we may be able wean ourselves off of the quad station and get into inscrutable blank space . ”
It remain to be seen which of these estimate , or a combination thereof , will actually be carried out — although the picture of just what ’s to come will probably take care a hatful clear after the election .
Image : Artist ’s unbelievable concept of space colonization ( 1970 ) / NASA
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