President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond

One note here - the purpose of the commission is not to determine
detailed technical designs, nor to change the broad outline Bush gave
last month: the site name "Moon to Mars" and the commission's
abbreviated name, "Commission on Moon, Mars, and Beyond" indicates that
that part, at least is pretty much fixed. The main focus of the
commission, from the public hearing yesterday, seems to be figuring out
appropriate management changes that may be needed for NASA and the
overall space activities of the federal government to make this a
sustainable path, through future changes in president, congress, and
budgetary ups and downs. The testimony of Norm Augustine, head of a
previous commission 14 years ago, spoke volumes about how difficult it
is to actually effect changes; Greg Klerkx' recent book "Lost in Space"
(which I recommended to several of the commission members myself) is one
key to understanding the failure of innovation to thrive at NASA in
recent years. Klerkx quotes our friend Eric Dahlstrom, by the way, among
many others.

So, before telling the commission what you think, think carefully about
what structural or management issues would help the federal government
turn this into a sustainable space enterprise. We don't want another
Apollo here, nor another Shuttle program. This is supposed to be
something very new - and yet perhaps similar to what has been done in
other technology areas in the past.

Arthur