Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!eos!brody From: brody@eos.UUCP (Adam Brody) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Letter to Congress, et. al. Keywords: space station, politics Message-ID: <1365@eos.UUCP> Date: 22 Aug 88 16:16:03 GMT Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, California Lines: 107 The following letter is being prepared for mass distribution. Please make comments and criticisms. The final copy will be reposted after all comments have been assimilated. Thank you in advance. "The exploration of space will go ahead whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space." President Kennedy said that over twenty-five years ago and those words remain just as true today. In the early 1960's, the civilian space budget was one percent of the GNP and now the NASA budget is about half of what it was then in constant dollars. This downward trend is foolish and harmful and should be reversed. Millions of jobs have been created by the space program and trillions of dollars have poured into the economy as a result. For every dollar invested in the space program, seven dollars are reinvested in the economy making space the best national technology catalyst investment the Nation has made. This country has also benefited from many spinoff technologies which have improved the lives of millions of people. Recent spinoffs include a device which improves the vision of individuals with low-vision eyesight, a cornea optical topographical scan system for assistance with eye surgery, end effectors for amputees, breathing apparatus for firefighters, fire resistant textiles, digital imaging and digital radiography for medical purposes, and a device that reduces pollution in the air. Hundreds of technologies originally developed for the space program have found applications in the medical and other industries. Millions of lives have been saved by accurate weather and storm prediction by satellite. The space program should be viewed as an investment, a resource, and an asset rather than an expense. It is both ironic and unfortunate that while the United States has previously led the race to space, it is the only one of the technically advanced nations in the world which has reduced the scope of its civilian space program. The Soviets have had a continuous manned presence in space since February 1987 aboard Mir which is their eighth space station since 1971. They have accumulated over 5000 man-days in space greatly exceeding our 1800. While Skylab, the U.S. space station launched in 1973, was larger and more sophisticated then than Mir is today, Skylab was abandoned in 1974 after only three manned visits and ultimately crashed to Earth because the Space Shuttle was not ready in time to rescue it from a decaying orbit. Meanwhile, the Soviet tortoise moves along slowly but surely gathering invaluable experience. While the U.S. is the only nation to land people on the moon, that was almost 20 years ago. Last year, the United States launched only eight rockets (none of them manned) while the Soviet Union launched a staggering 95. Domestic space services have become so poor that an American company was forced to contract with the Soviets to send a crystal-growing experiment aboard Mir next year. While our country's space program has been virtually paralyzed since the Challenger accident, a Soviet rocket lifts off every four days. Other countries have been forging ahead in space as well. Japan just completed a ground test of an SRB for their next generation rocket. France is putting satellites into orbit with their Ariane and currently Arianespace holds 56 percent of the world's orders. India just launched their Remote Sensing Satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Soviet Union. China has been very active and is gearing up for manned missions as is ESA. Italy just passed a bill to form the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Quite a different state of affairs from the 1960's when we were very active in space and most of these countries had not left the ground yet. Once the shuttle is operational again, the most important project for our space program is the space station. The space station is required for many reasons including: investigating the effects of long term exposure to zero-g in preparation for a manned Mars mission, serving as a staging area for future missions to Mars and the moon, producing high grade pharmaceuticals, developing the further commercial potential of space, challenging the Soviet lead in space stations, contributing to American pride and prestige, stimulating interest in science and engineering education, providing options for future endeavors in space and assuring free world leadership in space during the 1990s and beyond. The space station will give us a permanently manned presence in space and serve as a new national laboratory for advanced research and technology development. A manned mission to Mars is a topic which has been under discussion for many years and has surfaced in the media recently due to Soviet activites toward this end, namely the launch of probes to Mars. This project involves scientists from 10 other countries in addition to ESA. While the Soviets estimate the total cost of a manned mission to Mars (including the preliminary missions that are underway) to be a prohibitive(?) $200 billion, the U.S. spends 50% more than that on defense every year. In another comparison, it will cost $50 billion to remedy the current Texas bank situation. NASA's FY89 budget request of $11.488 billion (reduced to $10.2 billion by the House which is debating with the Senate over a final number) seems very small when compared to these other expenditures. The total estimated cost of the international space station, which has risen to $21 billion will be spread out over a decade but could be paid for in two years if funding were at the levels it was in the mid-1960s. Your interest and views for the space program are acknowledged and applauded and you are urged to support the current space station design as a necessary step for future advances in space. We need the space program because it is tantamount to our economy, our wealth, our security, and our general well being. Sincerely, Adam Brody These opinions are not necessarily those of my employer.