10-Year Plan

On Tuesday, October 22, 2002, at 02:43 PM, Ian Woollard wrote:

> NASA is not the same as 'space spending'. NASA is a tiny fraction of
> space, and getting smaller all the time. Governmental operations grow
> at only the same rate as the population grow. Commercial operations
> tend to grow exponentially.

A year of two ago commercial expenditures on space exceeded government
spending for the first time. Since then the commercial side has gone
into a major slump.

The International Space Station (ISS) most important legacy may be
jump-starting space tourism. Consider: the first space tourist, Dennis
Tito, was supposed to go to the Soviet era Mir space station. Under
pressure from NASA, Russia de-orbited the Mir which resulted in Mr. Tito
going to the ISS instead. Now the Mir was old, smelly, crowded and
probably not all that nice. The ISS was brand new, shinny, much more
roomy, etc. Mr. Tito came back to Earth with glowing accounts of how
great space is. Would his experience have been as good on Mir?

Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html