SPACESHIP GAIA EXPLORER SPECIAL REPORT: "AMERICA'S FUTURE IN SPACE" - An "Allies in Space" Town Hall Meeting with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

"I look at Earth from distant skies
And wonder, if man knew
The living power that rests in him
Would he dare the unknown too?"

"Is this wild dream of space, the breaking shell,
man, to free, at last, your dreaming soul?"

-- Aline Carter, an astronomer and Poet Laureate of Texas, 1947-1949; quotes from "Doubt Not the Dream," the poetry collection of Ms. Aline Carter.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, speaks at "America's Future in Space" Town Hall meeting at American Museum of Natural History.

SPACE ACTIVISTS HEAR, INTERACT WITH DYNAMIC SPACE LEADER By Harold Egeln (vice president, The New York Space Society - NSSNYC) New York City, NY, Monday, April 4, 2005 -- Star power was ignited on Saturday as the dynamic director of the Hayden Planetarium, astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the united energy of the metropolitan New York City area pro-space community, fueled through the new "Allies in Space" coalition, linked-up for a lively discussion of "America's Future in Space.' In a Space Town Hall meeting held at the Kaufmann Theatre at the American Museum of Natural History, Dr. Tyson was introduced by President Candace Pankanin of The New York Space Society on behalf of the new pro-space alliance, He made an energetic presentation followed by a wide-ranging question-and-answer session that realistically clarified the direction and the essential political, economic and cultural formulas which may drive space exploration and human space travel in this 21st Century. PEOPLE MATH TELLS THE SPACE STORY To demonstrate the public's high level of interest in space, Tyson seized upon the mathematics of over two million visitors a year to the Rose Center for Earth and Space, ten times the annual visitors count at the old Hayden Planetarium in the 1990s, and of over an astounding ten billion hits to the JPL website in the four months following the landing of the robotic rovers on Mars in January 2004, along with the high level focus of "Astrophysics in the Media." "That's a statement of the public interest in reaching the universe," said Tyson. Of the media and space, he said that "it is all celebration." But before focusing on that, he first took a look back at many of the discouraging and shortsighted opinions of the past, made by news editors and others "clueless of technology." They included comments, even by astronomers in the early and mid-20th Century, before the Space Age was launched with Sputnik in October 1957, about what they believed to be the impossibility of escaping Earth's gravity and landing on the Moon. In the first glory days of space achievements of the 1960s, with crewed space flights powered by the Cold War agenda, Tyson noted that "once space became possible, people went overboard." He cited wildly optimistic predictions in "The Wall Street Journal" in 1966 and "The Futurist" in 1967 of crewed lunar bases and crewed missions to Mars in the 1980s. "Even rocket scientist Robert Traux, in 1980, predicted 50,000 people living and working in space by 2000. Didn't happen," Tyson said. "No one carried any notion of the drivers for space exploration," which are military reasons, economic gain and pride of power. Tyson got a stellar opportunity to make his experience, deep knowledge and brilliant thoughtfulness go to work with other space and technology experts right after Opportunity and Spirit landed successfully on Red Planet Mars 15 months ago on the high tide of public acclaim for the Martian feat. TYSON A KEY LEADER IN U.S. SPACE POLICY The Bronx-born astrophysicist, author and host of the recent PBS-TV "Origins" program was a member of the nine member U.S. Space Policy Commission chosen by the Bush Administration in January 2004 to determine the direction of the nation's space program over the next few decades. That would be to get NASA, with a cultural transformation and new purpose, out of low Earth orbit "where hundreds have boldly gone before" and to "the Moon, Mars and Beyond" in cost-effective ways at present budget levels with no massive infusion of funds, such as with the Project Apollo. "There's a new vision on the table," said Tyson. He was the only astrophysicist on the Commission, along with planetary geologists and even a former Congress-Member. [See our full Special Report on the Commission's hearings in New York City in May 2004, accessible from our Homepage.] Fueling part of that vision is the media interest, as mentioned. "It's undeniable that astrophysics has penetrated the media," said Tyson, citing several examples. That included, on the top of the front page of The New York Times of October 22, 1997, with two beautiful color spectacular photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of colliding galaxies. That appeared during the first week that the former "old grey" Times began printing color news photos. Even astronomical spectrographic science made top front page headlines in The Times, finally seeing "the light." That happened in a page one story by John Wilford Noble on August 17, 1999, telling of astronomers "Being Stumped By A Tiny Light" far out in space, not knowing what to make of it. As Tyson said, with glee, that "this was the first article about spectra" in the major media, he showed, in his computer slide show display, the full page 18 where Noble's article continued, occupying a full page, with no ads. The page inclluded three large, detailed graphs mapping the puzzling spectrum of the enigmatic, unknown cosmic "Tiny Light" and a hefty sidebar about black holes. "Anything is possible when they give spectra to the public!" Tyson exclaimed. "PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF THE COSMOS" The on-going public debate of the fate of the Hubble Space Telescope is remarkable, he said, in that the media and the public are involved. The Hubble, in space since the early 1990s, is familiar to the public and has the status of a national landmark in its eyes, if not by official decree. "The public has taken ownership of the cosmos," Tyson said, citing the Hubble debate and the deep impact space has on the public imagination and the public marketplace. The infusion of astrophysics and space into public mass culture is widespread, Tyson noted. He cited an "Albert Einstein Action Figure" which is displayed in toy stores and departments along with super-hero action figures of all sorts, like Mega-Man and the Fantastic Four. "How about a Tyson Action figure?" an audience member shouted. He replied there is a Tyson figure, but not of this astrophysicist. "It's astrophysics meets media, merchandise and fashion," Tyson said about the space culture in American society. And dealing with the media's skeptical side sometimes takes a bit of fancy footwork, as he told of his appearance on the "Today" TV show. Asked about the $3.2 billion cost of placing the first space probe, Cassini-Huygens, into orbit around Saturn last Summer and how it can be justified when there's so much pressing social issues on Earth, Tyson replied: "That's the same amount the American public spends on lip balm for one year." That took the now flustered interviewer off guard, and when Tyson left, walking outside, he was met with a cheering crowd, who saw and heard the interview, some people holding up Chapsticks in his support. The interviewer's misplaced criticism of the space program's costs reflected the even division on public support, pretty much a 50-50 split, even though the supportive public, as he noted, remains very strong. When people were polled about the Space Policy Commission Report recommending eventual crewed missions to the Moon and Mars, released in June 2004, it was 48% for, 48% against and four not sure. But when President Bush's name was mentioned in connection with it, the vote was 43% in favor and 52% opposed, with five percent not sure, demonstrating the president's unpopularity. "Our presence in space has become a partisan issue," said Tyson. Thus, there is a political factor at work that needs to be kept in mind in supporting the initiative for human exploration of the solar system in this century. The major drivers for human exploration and progress, Tyson said, were "for defense, the promise of an economic return and in praise of power," and he cited examples, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the exploration and exploitation of the Americas, to name a few. Of these drives and their relationship to the new Space Vision, Tyson said, "That's the insight I brought to the table of the Commission." President John Kennedy's speech before Congress on May 25, 1961 about the nation putting a man on the Moon before the end of the decade was not for "the glory of discovery" and scientific gain, said Tyson. It was actually a manned moonshot volley in the Cold War, as Kennedy said in his often unquoted second paragraph about the real purpose of going to the Moon. It was a war cry to win a big battle in that Cold War with the Soviet Union before the Soviets got to the Moon first. The first scientist on the Moon, Tyson noted, was a geologist sent on the last lunar mission, Apollo 17 in December 1972. The recent appointment of fellow astrophysicist Dr. Michael Griifin to head NASA is a huge plus, Tyson said, noting Griffin's work on "extending human presence into solar system exploration." "That's a start. But I worry about its sustainability."

HOW TO ANIMATE THE NEW SPACE VISION "NASA needs a much stronger relationship to the capital marketplace," Tyson recommended. He cited the example of the government encouraging and granting funds to private airplane builders in the 1910s and 1920s to deliver its U.S. Postal Department mail services. That led to more airplanes being built for the job, spurred by government support, and eventually these services began doing it on their own for a profit. And that led to the next big step. "Thus was born the initial passenger plane industry," Tyson noted. This sets the example for today's space program and the birth of the private spaceflight industry, which got a big lift with the three successful suborbital spaceflights of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, which snagged the $10 million dollar X-Prize gold space ring on its last two space jaunts early in the Autumn. All is not rosy nor certain in the "new roadmap to space," Tyson warned. There are definate obstacles for the new direction in space, to be sure, to overcome, as Tyson cited bean-counting nay-sayers. This included a New York Times lead editorial, "Half-Baked Proposal for Space" and a cover story in "The Economist" on "George Bush's grand but costly vision." Both criticisms were based on faulty economic mathematics. "There's a profound disconnect," he said in understanding the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of funding the Space Vision. "We got to head over to the capital marketplace," Tyson emphasized, "just like the governmen did with airmail." In the Final Commission Report, he explained, "we call for enterprenal projects. We call for prizes to be awarded by NASA." "What's done in someone's 'garage' may be more important than what Lockheed-Marietta has," Tyson noted. "You need the economic drive that is the market." "The plan is to treat our whole solar system as our own backyard and explore it," he said about the Space Vision purpose. "I think it can happen." Tyson, in his rousing, bouyant way and charming humor, held sway over the packed auditorium of nearly 200 people for over two hours, going beyond the alloted timespan of his presentation. He then launched into nearly 90 minutes of questions and answers. Pankanin, sitting upfront, described the energy of the questions flowing through her "like cosmic rays." Q-&-A SHOWS SPACE ACTIVISTS DYNAMISM Thanks to a grassroots space force of space activists and enthusiasts, including a number of children and likely future space travelers, the question and answer session with Tyson demonstrated the vital dynamism of the pro-space movement, united here through the fledgling Allies in Space coalition, a major news story in itself. Among the ideas orbited around was a way to recruit space scientists, technicians and engineers for the new direction in space. Tyson asked if the military can recruit people, why can't a transformed and re-inspired NASA not do likewise? "We envsion a Space Academy," he said of a proposed U.S. version of the International Space University in Europe. "When you finish at the Academy, you can sail right into NASA." How can NASA use its many scientific resources better and freshly? Use the JPL model, which is well over a half-a-century old and was started out of the California Institute of Technology, Tyson suggested. All the science and research centers now under NASA administration would go their own way on the JPL model, bringing new energy, enthusiasm, creativity, motivation, innovation and people into a revitalized space program and NASA. And, Tyson emhasized, add the important, essential ingrediant of international cooperation, such as demonstrated in the ESA-NASA Cassini-Huygens mission. Who knows, some people wondered, perhaps an Internatonal Space Agency will develop in the not-too-distant future? When asked about new exotic propulsion systems for more efficient, cheaper and faster space travel, Tyson ruled out such concepts as laser and "warp drive" as "science fiction" at present. "What we need is powerful thrust," he said, suggesting "nuclear propulsion" as the space wave-of-the-future with advanced fission engines as being studied with Project Prometheus. What if life on Mars is discovered and confirmed? That may be great news, Tyson replied. But if that life, almost certain to be less varied and complicated as Earth life and existing underground probably, has a DNA code like ours, then it would still be very interesting but not astounding. It would confirm that if more life is to be found in space, it would likely have the same DNA basis as Earth's. But, Tyson said, if Martian life were found to be based on some other coded structure rather than DNA, "it would be a revolutionary discovery." The Q-and-A was followed by engaging chit-chat at the display table outside the theater with Tyson's books and audio-tapes. No one was thinking too much about the driving rainstorm outside, as crowds filled the museum to escape "the low barometric pressure" that made both the rain and large musuem crowds possible, as Tyson described it. ALLIES IN SPACE + TYSON = SUCCESS The successful Space Town Hall Meeting on "America's Future in Space" came about because Tyson, rather than speaking to one pro-space activist group at a time, thought it would be more efficient, engaging and energizing to talk with all groups at once. He was right on! It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that potential. Spurred, in part, by that logical necessity and by the example of the Space Alliance coalition formed by several space advocacy organizations in Washington, DC last year, Allies in Space was created in New York City, pooling resources of several excellent sources of strength. Allies in Space decribes itself as "a community of Space and Astronomy groups and individuals joining forces to promote Space Exploration." The Town Hall was the first event by Allies in Space. It consists of the New York Chapter of the National Space Society, The Planetary Society, The Mars Society of New York, the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York, The Hudson River Museum-Andrus Planetarium and N.Y. Skies, along with individual sponsors Eugene and Frances Cervone, Robert DeBiase and Raeganne Eastman, all of the NY Space Society (NSSNYC). When people entered the auditorium for the free event, they were greeted by space-folks with stellar smiles, who handed them a snazzy packet of material about the participating sponsors, along with the delight of the March-April 2005 "The Planetary Report" from The Planetary Society, of which Tyson is Board of Directors Chair. He is also a member of the National Space Society and other pro-space organizations. This first time event of the new Allies in Space was the grand launch of the coalition and with Tyson, who arrived right on time fresh from a meeting in Washington, DC, suitcase in hand and filled with boundless energy, in the astro-pilot seat, making for a successful pro-space mission. To Allies in Space: "Live long and prosper!" ********************************************************* For more information about the new pro-space community alliance, contact: AlliesinSpace@aol.com

Harold Egeln, a journalist in New York City and a newspaper staff reporter, is the editor of the "SPACESHIP GAIA EXPLORER JOURNAL" and the vice president of The New York Space Society (NSS-NYC chapter).