web@garnet.berkeley.edu (William Baxter) (07/22/89)
A Survey for Space Activists
1. Do you consider yourself to be a space activist?
2. Who invented the theory of rocketry and when? Who developed the
first liquid fueled rockets? Who first discussed the science and
engineering of interplanetary travel?
3. Are you aware that less than half the population of Mexico was alive
at the time of the last Apollo moon landing?
4. Does the US have a robust space program? Does the USSR have a robust
space program?
5. Are you a member of the: National Space Society, British
Interplanetary Society, Planetary Society, Space Studies Institute, Other?
6. Which of the following have you read: Princeton Space Manufacturing
Conference # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, Keeping the Dream Alive, Scientific
Foundations of Space Manufacturing, AIAA Journal, Journal of Spacecraft
and Rockets, Journal of Power and Propulsion, Space Power, Acta
Astronautica, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Astronautica
Acta, Lunar Bases and Space Activities in the 21st Century, 2081, The
Technology Edge, A Space Program Derived from American Values, Space
Colonies and Space Resources, Space Colonies---A Design Study, Space
Settlements---A Design Study, SSEC Report, The Permanant War Economy, The
US Congressional Record, Ad Astra, Planetary Report, Aviation Week and
Space Technology.
7. Is a national organization necessary for the NSS chapters? Why or why
not?
8. Does failure to acheive a quorum at the annual meeting constitute
incompetence on the part of the NSS board of directors?
9. Should the office staff of the NSS reveal to the chapters potentially
embarrasing facts, such as the level of AIAC support for day to day
activities? Why or why not?
10. Should the NSS open its accounting records to interested members?
11. Should the NSS pay Mark Hopkins' expenses for Spacepac activities?
12. Has the legislative committee of the NSS done anything: pro-space,
anti-space, at all?
13. Are Scott Pace and Sandra Adamson's contradictory statements at the
1988 Meet the Candidates Forum a cause for concern? Why or why not?
14. Should the NSS accept donations from aerospace contractors who have
interests in the policy positions of the NSS?
15. Should board members and other NSS policy makers be allowed to hold
simultaneous positions at aerospace contractors which have interests in
these policies? Is this ethical? Why or why not? Do these people truly
represent your views? Should they speak to your Congressman for you?
16. Is the nominating process employed by the NSS democratic? Why is it
used? Should a nominations committee endorse candidates for the NSS board
of directors? Even when more candidates have qualified by petition than
can be elected?
17. The NSS bylaws provide a means for the board of directors to expel
and replace its members. Should this provision be used instead of
election endorsement? Should this provision be used at all?
18. How should the election procedures be changed? Are you confident of
the ability of Mark Hopkins to implement the appropriate reforms as de
facto head of the NSS?
19. What should the NSS do to foster debate on policy issues? Have you
debated questions of space policy at your chapter?
20. Which subjects should receive more coverage in Ad Astra, and which
should receive less coverage? Should the society magazine be employed to
promote specific projects, as presently with the NASA Space Station? Why
or why not?
21. What should the NSS do or supply in support of its chapters: Periodic
bulk mailings, Free banners, posters and flyers, Maintain a speakers
bureau, Promotional and informative videos, Slide shows, Run a chapter
based phone tree, Fund chapter projects, MIR Watch prediction programs and
materials, More space in Ad Astra for chapter concerns, Ask chapters for
input into NSS policy decisions, Promote debate of space policy issues
among chapters.
22. Is a chapter based phone tree more appropriate than one consisting of
chapter members and non chapter members? Why or why not? Who should be
able to activate the phone tree? What are the valid purposes for the
phone tree? What are invalid purposes for the phone tree?
23. Do you see a parallel between NASA having trouble carrying projects
to completion, exhibiting confused priorities and never having enough
money despite steadily increasing budgets, and the NSS having trouble
communicating with membership, displaying confused policy and never having
the resources to support chapters despite AIAC donations?
24. Who are your congressional representatives? Have you visited their
offices during the last year?
25. What are you doing to make space a national or local election issue?
Which potential 1992 presidential candidates are you working with on space
issues? What are you doing with them?
26. Are individual projects more important than policy, or vice versa?
27. Does space policy consist primarily of asking Congress to appropriate
more money for NASA? Does space activism?
28. What are the appropriate priorities for a space program?
29. What is the appropriate space policy for the US to have?
30. What is the proper role of commercial industry in opening the space
frontier? What are you doing to support this activity?
31. If it is necessary to mislead congressmen so they appropriate more
money for the Space Station and the Space Shuttle, is it morally
acceptable? Would you do it? Would you want Spacepac and Spacecause to
do it?
32. If NASA personnel must engage in (techically) criminal violations of
the Hatch act to ensure that the space station continues to receive
funding, do you thing the Justice department should overlook them? Why or
why not?
33. What are you going to do when the next space shuttle accident occurs?
What should NASA do? What will NASA do? What should Congress do? What
will Congress do? Have you talked to your Congressman about what to do?
34. US airlines and airliner manufacturers are among the most successful
in the world. Much of their early growth was due to lucrative government
airmail contracts, which provided dependable income at a time when the
market for passenger service looked small and very uncertain. Today, it's
difficult to get financial support for cheaper space launchers because
today's market is small and predictions of growth are very uncertain.
Should the US government offer some similar form of market guarantee---not
development funding, but payment only for results---to encourage cheaper
access to space?
35. Who wrote the Space Transportation Services Purchase Act? Who
supports the STSPA? Do you support the STSPA? Why or why not?
36. What is the significance of the eleven year gap between Pioneer Venus
2 and Magellan? Of the lack of manned lunar landings during the last 17
years?
37. Should NASA purchase or lease the Commercially Developed Space
Facility? Is the CDSF an appropriate building block for an incrementally
constructed space station? Why did NASA refuse to spend the $25 million
dollars which Congress appropriated for the CDSF in fiscal year 1988?
38. Who wrote the Commercially Developed Space Facility Act? Who
supports the CDSFA? Do you support the CDSFA? Why or why not?
39. Should the government decide who gets to go to a lunar settlement?
How will NASA select the astronauts who will go to its moon base?
40. Who should be allowed to go to space settlements: Convicted
criminals, Homosexuals, AIDS victims, Antisocial people, Lawyers, People
who refused to join the Armed Services, Traitors, Nazis, Tax evaders,
Communists, Socialists, Progressives, Liberals, Democrats, Libertarians,
Jews, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Yourself?
41. What forms of sexual expression should be allowed on space stations
and colonies: Making of pornographic movies, Sodomy, Homosexuality,
Relations between consenting adults, Relations between married
individuals. Should NASA regulate sexual relations in space?
42. Which of the following psychoactive drugs should be allowed to be
used on space colonies: LSD, Opium, Hashish, Alcohol, Heroin,
Amphetimines, Barbiturates, Nitrous Oxide, Nicotine, Phonylcyclidene,
Cocaine, Amyl Nitrate, THC, Caffeine. Are people with established
patterns of abusing these drugs the kinds of the responsible adults we
need on space colonies? Should we allow people who abuse these drugs to
determine space policy?
43. Does the fact that the US Space Shuttle was the first vehicle of its
kind make it valuable as a launch vehicle?
44. Did you know that the wing for the US Space Shuttle was patterned
after the wing of the Concorde?
45. NASA published a 261 page list of acronyms for space shuttle systems.
What does this indicate about the STS?
46. Would any one designing a launch vehicle from scratch think of the
Shuttle-C? Why or why not?
47. Why hasn't NASA flown a lunar polar orbiter in the 20 years since the
first moon landing made apparent the need for the data it would return?
48. Did the fact that 3 countries sent 5 spacecraft to see Halley's
commet make it unnecessary for NASA to do so?
49. What does it matter that the cost of launch by NASA has not decreased
over the last two decades?
50. Why doesn't the US use Saturn V boosters any more?
51. What was James Fletcher's role in the Apollo program?
52. How can the Chinese its incredibly high technology launch vehicles in
a refrigerator factory where they make refrigerators when they do not need
rockets?
53. Why are Soviet launch vehicles 20 times less expensive than US launch
vehicles?
54. What lesson can be drawn from the fact that Soviet launch vehicles
developed in the 1950's and 1960's are inexpensive, while American launch
vehicles (Atlas, Titan, Delta) originally developed in the 1950's and 60's
are still fairly costly?
55. Are the Soviet Venera spacecraft, which operate in a high pressure
atmosphere of hot sulfuric acid, representative of their inferior space
technology?
56. The Soviets performed remote sample return missions from the moon in
the 1970's. Should we use their technology to do the same or to return
samples from Mars?
57. Since the Soviets sell launches at an absurdly low price, we are
faced with a win-win situation. If we buy as many launches as they sell,
we will either have low cost access to space on a grand scale (if the
launches truly are cheap) or we will bankrupt them (if the launches are
subsidized). Should we commit tens of billions of dollars to buying
Soviet launches?
58. The Soviets have already agreed to fly several paying passengers.
Who will the next 10 passengers be? When will the next civilian fly on
the space shuttle? Why have the French have signed an agreement with the
Soviets to fly a french cosmonaut every two years?
59. Given the fact that we have reneged on so many past programs of
international cooperation in space, why are the Europeans and Japanese
willing to cooperate with us on the Space Station?
60. Given a choice between cooperating in space ventures with the Soviet
Union or with NASA, which should a third world country choose? Why?
61. Due to all our scientific payloads being forced to fly on the
shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope was not in space to observe the recent
supernova. What was the cost to space science and to our understanding of
the world due to this unfortunate circumstance?
62. The Russian book ``Scientific Foundations of Space Manufacturing''
states ``Recent years have seen the advent of manufacturing on board
spacecraft---a new dimension in man's activities in outer space. The
materials thus produced show performance substantially improved owing to
the factors that exist in orbital flight, above all dynamic weightlessness
which cannot be simulated on the Earth for a sufficiently long time.''
What do you make of this?
63. What are the Soviets are doing with the gallium arsenide they
manufacture onboard MIR? Will they sell it to the Japenese? To the
Pentagon? Will these groups buy it? Should they? Do national security
concerns demand that the Pentagon buy it as an alternative source for an
important material?
64. With NASA spending 3.5 billion dollars on the space shuttle this
year, how much should it be spending on expendable launch vehicles and
commercial launch services?
65. What companies offer commercial launch services? How many launches
has NASA purchased on a commercial basis?
66. Can the government can operate space industries?
67. Is it the proper role for government to own and operate factories,
such as the one NASA is building to make a new kind of solid rocket
booster (despite the fact that private companies would rather build their
own plants)? Is NASA ownership of rocket factories, launch facilities and
research laboratories similar to the communist system of state ownership
of the means to production? How do you rationalize NASA ownership of
factories with the current Soviet effort to divest itself of state
ownership due to its generally recognized poor performance?
68. Is Civil Service Tenure similar to the security of employment every
communist citizen enjoys, regardless of how hard he or she works?
69. Do you find the arguments for the National Aerospace plane
disturbingly similar to those used for the Space Shuttle in the 1970's and
80's?
70. Why should Landsat be turned off for a lack of funding when several
billion dollars are spent every year to support classified DoD earth
``remote sensing'' activities?
71. If the Hubble Space Telescope is so wonderful, why can't we have ten
of them?
72. Since cosmonauts from several countries have flown on Mir, is it
proper to refer to it as the international space station?
73. Should we offer to buy Salyut 7 from the Soviets so we can have a
space station right away?
74. Does the fact that the Soviets are using an ion thruster to keep
their Salyut Space Station in orbit mean it is higher tech. than our space
station (which will use chemical propulsion) will be?
75. What do you think of the following quote from an interview with
Freeman Dyson in the Spring 1988 TECHNE Journal of Technological Studies
from the VTS department at Stanford:
``There are lots of idiots, of course, in NASA, but my view of NASA is
rather like the Royal Air Force used to be in the old days when I worked
for the Royal Air Force during the war. If you had an officer who was a
dud, you put him in the command headquarters because he would do less
damage there than he would out in the squadrons. So all the duds
accumulated at the headquarters -- this is what has happened at NASA for
the last thirty years or so. Acutally, there are lots of very fine
things, but they're all out in the stations. If you look at JPL out here
in California, or you look at Goddard which is in Maryland, they're doing
very well. I think JPL is running the Voyager missions, which of course
have been beautifully done. The Voyager went to Jupiter and Saturn and
Uranus and will go to Neptune next year. That's a fantastically good
mission, which is run at JPL, and then there is the IUE, run at Goddard.
So there are these very good, what NASA calls, the centers, these places
where the technical work is done. And there is this terrible bunch of
idiots in Washington at the headquarters which messes everything up. So I
think if you just abolish the Washington office, NASA would be in very
good shape.
``We actually tried that out during World War II. There was a very
analogus problem we had in 1943. The German armaments industry was doing
very well, they were producing a tremendous lot of armaments and we wanted
to put a stop to that. We found out that all the head offices of these
armament firms were in Dusseldorf and that was where all the paperwork was
done. So we decided we would really destroy Dusseldorf and disorganize
the whole system. We went in there one night and it was a very succesful
operation and Dusseldorf really burned down to the ground. And then, in
the next few weeks, the armament production went up like a rocket.''
76. What has NASA done that is: pro-space, anti-space?
77. Why would terminating NASA would speed up or slow down our progress
toward creating a spacefaring civilization?
78. Given the choice between Space Station Freedom and thirty CDSF's,
which would you choose?
79. Over 133 thousand people had arthroscopic surgery on their knee in
the US in 1987. Ten years ago this surgery involved a hospital stay and
small chance of a full recovery. Now it is an outpatient procedure, with
most patients walking the next day. Much of the advance in this surgery
is due to the frequency of knee injury in the NFL. Does this mean that
Congress should appropriate money to support the NFL in order to benefit
those in need of this surgery, or that the spinoff argument is absurd?
80. What would you do as NASA administrator? What would you do as a
congressional representative concerned with space issues? What would you
do as president? What would you do as a space activist?
81. What are you doing to make space an election issue nationally and
locally?
82. Do the ends justify the means? If they don't, what does?
83. Why does the statement ``The lunar base begins routine launch of
materials into space at the rate of 30,000 metric tons per year shortly
after sunrise at the lunar base on 1 June 1987'' which appeared in the
1977 Summer Report ``Space Resources and Space Settlements'' bear so
little relation to reality? Was it ever more realistic? What could be
done to make it a reality? How do you think the people who worked on the
report feel now?
84. Were the Reagan years (during which no planetary missions flew and
the Hubble Space Telescope sat on the ground) were good for the US space
program?
85. What needs to be done to enhance the success of projects like the
Space Studies Institute Lunar Polar Probe? What are you doing to support
this kind of project?
86. What is the most important thing to do in order to open the space
frontier? What are you doing about it?
--------
William Baxter
ARPA: web@{garnet,brahms,math}.Berkeley.EDU
UUCP: {sun,dual,decwrl,decvax,hplabs,...}!ucbvax!garnet!webwiml@blake.acs.washington.edu (William Lewis) (07/22/89)
In article <26581@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> web@garnet.berkeley.edu (William Baxter) writes: >A Survey for Space Activists > [...] >3. Are you aware that less than half the population of Mexico was alive ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >at the time of the last Apollo moon landing? > [...] > >William Baxter The other half was dead? Why did they include corpses in the population count? Maybe this questionnaire should have been in rec.humor ... --- phelliax "Eat spam. Don't eat spam. Eat spam. Don't eat spam."