January 01, 2018
From 'flags and footprints' to having a routine presence in space
President Trump’s signing of Space Policy Directive 1 once again gives NASA a mission adjustment and beneficial goals. The directive recommits NASA to:
“Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities.”
With the recent successes by the commercial sector, the space domain is no longer for governments by governments: NASA and the U.S. government require a fundamental change in tactics. While activities in space will always remain linked to Earth, shifting their “center” and expanding infrastructure from the surface of the Earth into Earth’s orbits and beyond by efficiently leveraging commercial capabilities is key to beginning the transition from “flags and footprints” to routine activities and presence in space.
“One mission, one destination” is the typical strategic mindset common to NASA’s science and human exploration missions, which results in developing required capabilities from scratch (e.g. SkyCrane) or looking at reusing existing technologies for other mission uses with minimal design change (heritage technology is preferred assuming that it drives down mission costs, a fact not always true, especially if such capabilities do not exist anymore — e.g. Orion TPS).
Read the full commentary in The Hill.
More from CNAS
-
Discussion with Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. Heather Wilson
Video
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) hosted a discussion with Secretary of the Air Force, the Honorable Dr. Heather Wilson, on strategic competition, Air Force readin...
By Jaelin Lespier
-
Don’t Retire Our Stealth Bombers
Commentary
When a local community government has trouble getting its books to balance or it simply desires additional tax revenue to expand local government, but it does not have support...
By Jerry Hendrix
-
The US Navy’s New Frigate Should Jumpstart a Revitalization of the Defense Industrial Base
Commentary
The United States Navy requires a frigate. Building this warship will strengthen our depleted naval fleet and reenergize a vital sector of the nation’s defense industrial base...
By Jerry Hendrix
-
Countering Entropy in the New Year
Commentary
In a year-end summary, one of our nation’s major weekly news publications recently tweeted that one of its most-read articles featured former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbache...
By Jerry Hendrix
