A New Era for Deep Space Exploration & Development

A New Era A New Vision
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Michael Laine Transcript:
"I like this language here about Bold call to action and Future generations and Build on their accomplishments. I feel like that there's nothing really particularly new there. It's always exciting to see that kind of stuff. But I like this line about Making travel throughout the solar system a normal part of the human experience. This doesn't say make it a part of the American experience. It says to make it a normal part of the human experience. I think that's really fun. I think that remarkably complicated and going to take a while. So, I’m not dismissive of it. I just I’m enough of a realist. It's going to take work to get there. But if that's a goal, I’m all for it. Making travel throughout the solar system a normal part of the human experience. Love it. Love it. I’ve never seen language like that in a document like this so pretty cool.
 
Of course, we talked about sustainability in our last video. Sustainable talks about programmatic, technological, and budgetary. You've got make sure you're staying within the bounds of stuff that we can really happen. But you know how this line is increasing numbers of Americans living in working space. The last paragraph was about a kind of humanity and then this one narrows it right back down to the US.
 
This is also one of those primary sentences of the whole document. It's a campaign. It's a vision to use what we've got right now Earth's orbit, Move further to the surface of the Moon, and then eventually sustainable human presence on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Okay, that's not saying anything that we haven't already said. But it says it’s in a really concise way that could be a tattoo. It's not quite the bumper sticker phrase. But Critical technologies, Operational capability, Commercial development the things that I really care about are starting to come to fruition.
 
Now it's 2020. the International Space Station has been operating continuously for 20 years. I think we have already demonstrated that the United States and its partners can maintain a human presence. But the difference is all of that comes from a huge infrastructure and support from the earth. If you didn't have a legion, a very smart human operating down here on the ground the ISS would deorbit in a matter of months. It's not a sustainable system. So, what this is saying is we've learned a lot from ISS. We couldn't have gotten this far without it. But now that we've got it what's the next logical step and that's really exciting. This is saying permanent human presence off-world with limited support from earth. I don't know that It'll ever be entirely independent. That would be an interesting day if the moon was entirely independent of the earth. But that's still away.
 
So, once we've got it and we've got greater independence from the earth, then we can mount historic human missions to Mars and beyond. I’ve got this little asterisk in here. The word of commercial kept coming up over and over again. I did account 64 times. Some versions of commercial came into the conversation. Never in a document like this have we seen that kind of language. I have personally been fighting for nearly 20 years the commercialization of space. This is a document that really feels like we haven't gotten there yet like. We've gotten their first steps certainly SpaceX and Blue Origin and Intuitive Machines and Masten and Astrobotic and a bunch of the other guys Made In Space and Tethers Unlimited. All of those companies are certainly proof that this is happening. But I wouldn't say it's a done deal. I wouldn't say it's complete yet. So, this commercialization is at its first stage. As time goes by, this is going to be even more significant. I am really happy to see this language in this document. I do question the proving ground and the greater independence from the earth. I don't know whether the moon can be independent of the earth for a really long time. But if that happens, if the moon is ultimately independent of the earth that means we have a thriving civilization. Probably in many very large space stations around the solar system, Mars, and probably colonized some settled asteroids along the way too.
 
So, this isn't new. None of this is new. We have known this stuff for a long time. Of course, this is a republican focused document so It brings out a republican science advisor from 14 years ago. But this is not new stuff. This has been recycled many times. We have known that the moon is close, full of materials, and there's a lot of oxygen that can create rocket fuel. That stuff has been known for a while. But they throw this and not to diminish what's being said here. But they throw this in because it's politically the right thing to do for a document like this. But there are lots of other people that have said something very similar.
 
Artemis has gotten some fair and some unfair criticism that it's Apollo on steroids and a repeat of the Apollo program. I strongly disagree that it is not a repeat of the Apollo program. First of all, it has fewer missions so far scheduled and budgeted. So, that's an important distinction. It actually has fewer scheduled missions than the Apollo program but it's focused on commercialization. If you watch one of our last videos about how the moon is about to be a very busy place. The focus on many missions with many partners about 21 makes this so much more than Apollo ever was. I think that the political aspects and the symbolic aspects of the first woman on the moon are symbolically powerful. I can't believe it's taken this long in the first place. But I do think that this program is substantially more ambitious than the Apollo program and it's got probably better reasons for. It’s the first one it was beat the Soviets or else. That was the goal and we did it checkbox moving on. This one is really different. The foundation and the fundamental reasons for why we're going are they're still geopolitical but they are different and I hope better than the reasons for the Apollo program. So, I’m not in the camp that says it's a repeat. I think it is substantially more important than that."