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| Tuesday / 2 May 2006 | ||
Wingo
on Marburger: Economic Development of Moon Central to VSE.
Space entrepreneur and author Dennis
Wingo calls Presidential Science Advisor John Marburger's speech,
made at the '44th
AAS Goddard Symposium' in March, "the most important statement
on the development of the space frontier from the [US] government"
since JFK's Apollo speech. Wingo agrees with Marburger's main idea
-- that in terms of priority, "space is losing the funding battle
within the government as it is not perceived to contribute to future
economic competitiveness." Wingo says the Vision for Space Exploration
(VSE) and NASA space science must be realigned to support future
economic competitiveness in the USA. Marburger states in his speech
that the Moon, followed by NEOs, has the greatest potential for economic
development. To take advantage of the Moon's resources, Wingo says
NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program should "reflect a
resource prospecting theme" and support future human operations such
as GPS / communications infrastructure, lunar surface beacons and
preparatory work for a lunar base. Without a core focus on the
economic development of the Moon, Wingo does not think any lunar
architecture can achieve a truly sustainable human presence. Since
the VSE was announced over two years ago, two constant themes have
emerged for achieving economic development and sustainability on
the Moon and in space: commercialism and internationalism. Only by
utilizing the great resources of private industry and international
cooperation can humanity hope to open the space frontier to all and
become a multiplanet species. Source SpaceRef.
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