Those needs, and others, were presented to a presidential commission Thursday during two days of hearings with scientists, space industry professionals and educators on NASA's long-range space exploration goals.
The hearings, conducted at the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio were one of several information-gathering sessions to be held around the country in the next few months by the President's Commission on the Moon, Mars and Beyond. The commission, chaired by aerospace industry veteran Edward Aldridge, Jr., is tasked with generating the best recommendations to the President to meet his space goals.
In a Jan. 14 address, President Bush announced his space vision, which included robotic and human missions to the moon as well the lofty target of sending astronauts to Mars. During that speech, Bush also called for the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet by 2010.
The new space exploration plan did draw some criticism during the hearing, particularly from former U.S. senator and astronaut John Glenn on the second day of hearings. Glenn said the plan saves $2.9 billion in space funds at the cost of science programs aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the space shuttle's retirement. The ISS, he added, has not yet met its full scientific potential because it is incomplete.
Lennard Fisk, chairman of the space studies board for the National Science Foundation, told the commission that NASA's general science missions are a crucial signal of success for the public at large.
"The broader science program is what generates in people's minds the image that the things that are happening at NASA are good things," Fisk said. In recent years, the space agency's science programs have done better than NASA officials had hoped, but they could be reduced if the exploration side stretches on and on, he added.
Commission member Neil Tyson, an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, however, disagreed that NASA's new space vision must necessarily impact its science programs, even if it took away some funds.
"At this point, if we want to do it all, we should do it all," he said, adding that more discussion on how NASA's current science programs fit into its space exploration plan. "It's not obvious to me that it's impossible to secure more funding for these programs."
In order to maintain NASA's commitment to space exploration well into the future, the agency -- and the aerospace industry in general -- must work to keep today's students inspired in the mathematics and science so that they might become the engineers and space scientists of the future.
During the first day of hearings, teacher Brett Williams and his students from Fredricksburg High School in central Texas discussed their rocketry program with the commission.
"It's very clear here that there are exciting new ideas to inspire students from teachers, from industry and from NASA," said Aldridge, adding that the commission is still hearing testimony on the matter. "We will definitely have something to say on that topic."
Commission members stressed that while inspiring current students and children to pursue careers in the math, aerospace or engineering can benefit NASA in the future, it has a more widespread benefit for the U.S. as a whole.
"It goes way beyond just NASA," said commissioner Gen. Lester Lyles (ret.) of the U.S. Air Force. "This is just a golden opportunity to approach it with a very bold and succinct vision."
The next scheduled commission hearing is scheduled to begin March 25 in Atlanta, Georgia.
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