Jeff Foust at The Space Review takes a closer look at the remarks made by NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and Presidential Science Adviser John Marburger at the recent Goddard Memorial Symposium.
Griffin discussed NASA future exploration plans, pledged that the agency would work even closer with the emerging NewSpace industry, and urged the space community to get behind NASA’s plans to the point of ostracizing dissenters. Marburger talked about placing the nation’s future exploration and settlement of space within the larger context of American national interest.
Jeff Foust of SpacePolitics.com has a couple of reports on comments made by President Bush’s Science Adviser, John Marburger, during the Goddard Memorial Symposium concerning America’s future in space and whether there is a new “space race” with China.
Marburger emphasized that the nation’s goal is essentially to incorporate the Solar System into our economic sphere, Foust reports. The presidential adviser also took issue with several statements made by the Stanford Group, which gathered recently in Palo Alto to suggest alternative paths the United States could take. Marburger said the group put too much emphasis on exploration and not enough on economic benefits.
“Exploration by a few is not the grandest achievement,” Marburger said. “Occupation by many is grander.”
Foust also reports that the science adviser downplayed any rivalry with China. “I think it would be a serious mistake to construe the relative activities of China and the US as the beginning of a new space race,” Marburger said. “It would lose the opportunity for synergistic efforts” between China and the United States.
You can read Marburger’s prepared remarks here. Jonathan Goff also has thoughts about his remarks at Selenian Boondocks.
