Greg Klerkx: Lost in Space

02/08/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

You all might be interested in my review at the Huntsville Times. The editor added a lot of paragraph breaks, but I guess that's what editors are for. Follow the link, or read some of the text below. Aside from all the negative history, the positive point of the book is to help figure out what purpose NASA should serve in a future of mostly private space enterprise (particularly relating to human spaceflight). I certainly hope the new presidential commission takes some of this into account. […]

Klerkx doesn't entirely agree with the NASA-bashers he portrays, pointing out in the chapter “The Belly of the Beast” that there is “no 'NASA'; or rather, there are multiple 'NASAs',” over which even the administrator has little control.

[…] The most sympathetic portrait in the book is probably of Pascal Lee, Klerkx's SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute colleague, who has worked tirelessly with NASA staff and the Mars Society on Devon Island. For most of the rest of the space advocates, entrepreneurs, organizations and bureaucrats described here, one feels like shouting, “can't we all just get along?”

But there are legitimate grievances that trace one way or another to NASA as a self-protecting entity: the demise of Mir, the Industrial Space Facility, DC-X, the waste that was the SLI and X-33, the rise and fall (and rise again now?) of the Alternate Access to Space Station program, the treatment of Dennis Tito.

[…]

Most damning are Klerkx' details on the incestuous relationship between NASA and the two major contractors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Current arrangements seem almost guaranteed to suppress innovation, rather than foster it.

Ideally Klerkx sees innovation coming through growth of large numbers of smaller companies, but he also sees a vital role here for NASA as endorser, encourager and provider of technology support. NASA needs to accept a lesser role than the full control of human space flight it has had; the lack of progress described in Klerkx's text leaves one almost depressed for the future.

The X-prize competitors, Kistler and Elon Musk's venture, SpaceHab, and many other small space companies are featured, along with Russian privatization efforts.

[…]

Given the near comprehensive coverage, I was a little surprised Klerkx left out two private organizations that are actually launching hardware: the Planetary Society's Cosmos-1 solar sail and TransOrbital's private lunar mission. Perhaps no single person can be familiar with the entire worldwide range of government, commercial and nonprofit space activities at this start of the 21st century. And things change fast enough that what we thought we knew may no longer apply. The gaps in Klerkx's book are perhaps less significant than the fact that, although Klerkx covers Columbia's loss and the accident report, the book was finished well before the January 2004 presidential vision statement.

Refocusing NASA should address Klerkx's criticism, particularly if it helps change relationships with the private sector. But those working on changing NASA need to review this book if they want to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.