Testimony of Dr. Robert Zubrin to the Senate

Key quote for the let's develope the technology crowd:

"In today’s dollars, NASA average budget from 1961-1973 was about $17 billion per year. This is
only 10% more than NASA’s current budget. To assess the comparative productivity of the
Apollo Mode with the Shuttle Mode, it is therefore useful to compare NASA’s accomplishments
between 1961-1973 and 1990-2003, as the space agency’s total expenditures over these two
periods were equal.

Between 1961 and 1973, NASA flew the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Ranger, Surveyor,
and Mariner missions, and did all the development for the Pioneer, Viking, and Voyager
missions as well. In addition, the space agency developed hydrogen oxygen rocket engines,
multi-staged heavy-lift launch vehicles, nuclear rocket engines, space nuclear reactors,
radioisotope power generators, spacesuits, in-space life support systems, orbital rendezvous
techniques, soft landing rocket technologies, interplanetary navigation technology, deep space
data transmission techniques, reentry technology, and more. In addition, such valuable
institutional infrastructure as the Cape Canaveral launch complex, the Deep Space tracking
network, Johnson Space Center, and JPL were all created in more or less their current form.

In contrast, during the period from 1990-2003, NASA flew about three score Shuttle missions
allowing it to launch and repair the Hubble Space Telescope and partially build a space station.
About half a dozen interplanetary probes were launched (compared to over 30 lunar and
planetary probes between 1961-73). Despite innumerable “technology development” programs,
no new technologies of any significance were actually developed, and no major space program
operational infrastructure was created.

Comparing these two records, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that that NASA’s
productivity in both missions accomplished and technology development during its Apollo
Mode was at least ten times greater than under the current Shuttle Mode.

The Shuttle Mode is the expenditure of large sums of money without direction by strategic
purpose. That is why it is hopelessly inefficient. But the blame for this waste cannot be placed on NASA leaders alone, some of whom have attempted to rectify the situation. Rather, the political class must also accept major responsibility."

Most if not all of this was in the earlier linked text as well, but the total statment is much longer. From there he also covers (his titles):

2. What Should our Goal Be? [ want to guess? ;-) ]

3. How Do We Get There? [probably bored nontechs to death]

4. What Congress Needs to Do Now [Sounds like giving them orders - uh oh]

"The US civilian space program is presently in a crisis. It is now apparent that the Shuttle Orbiter
cannot be used much longer as a system for transporting crews to Earth orbit. The Columbia
disaster has made it clear that the antiquated Orbiters are becoming increasingly unsafe.
Moreover, even if the Orbiter could be flown safely, it is clear that using a launch vehicle with a
takeoff thrust matching that of a Saturn V to transport half a dozen people to the Space Station
makes about as much sense as using an aircraft carrier to tow water skiers. The Shuttle was
designed as a self-launching space station. Absent a permanent space station on-orbit, such a
vehicle had some justification. But with the establishment of the ISS, the rationale for using a
flying Winnebago as a space taxi is no longer sustainable.

....

Rather than appropriate $17 billion for an OSP program that will not take us anywhere, Congress
should appropriate $60 million to fund two six-month $30 million studies to develop end-to-end
plans for human exploration of Mars. One of these $30 million studies should be conducted at
NASA Johnson Space Center. The other $30 million should go to fund a competing interagency
team led by someone from one of the non-NASA government space agencies. Each of these
teams should be charged with the task of developing a complete space architecture and mission
plan that enables humans to Mars within ten years of program start, with lunar missions enabled
by a modified subset of the Mars mission hardware. Constraints should be placed on the plans
such as a total development cost limit of $30 billion or less, with a recurring Mars mission cost
no greater than $3 billion.

..."

5. Conclusion

"Senator McCain, distinguished members of the Commerce Committee. Humanity today stands
at the brink of a liberating development which will be remembered far into future ages, when
nearly all the other events of our time are long forgotten. That development is the initiation of the human career as a spacefaring species.

The Earth is not the only world. There are numerous other planetary objects in our own solar
system, millions in nearby interstellar space, and hundreds of billions in the galaxy at large. The
challenges involved in reaching and settling these new worlds are large, but not beyond
humanity’s ultimate capacity. Were we to become spacefarers, we will open up a prospect for a
human future that is vast in time and space, and rich in experience and potential to an extent that exceeds the imagination of anyone alive today. When we open the space frontier, we will open the door to the creation of innumerable new branches of human civilization, replete with new languages, new cultures, new literatures, new forms of social organization, new knowledge,
technological contributions, and epic histories that will add immeasurably to the human story.

We were once a small collection of tribes living in the east African rift valley. Had we stayed in
our native habitat, that is all we would be today. Instead, we ventured forth, took on the
challenges of the inhospitable ice age environments to the north, and then elsewhere, and in
consequence, transformed ourselves into a global civilization. When we go into space, the
expansion of our possibilities will be equally dramatic. As a result, the human experience a few
thousand years from now will be as rich in comparison to ours, as our global society is in
comparison to tribal culture of the Kenyan rift valley at the time of our species’ origin.

Therefore, I believe that we here today sitting in this historic chamber are gathered not at the end of history, but at the beginning of history. That our nation shall be remembered not so much for the great deeds our predecessors have already done, but for the still greater accomplishments they have prepared us, and those who will follow us, to do. Let us therefore embrace our role as humanity’s vanguard, as pioneers of the future. Let us honor the true American tradition by continuing it, and bravely take on the untamed space frontier to open new worlds for our posterity, as our courageous predecessors did for us.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I ask that you embrace the challenge of Mars, and act
forcefully to put NASA on a track that will deliver real results. The American people want and
deserve a space program that is actually going somewhere. For that to occur, it needs be given a goal, from that goal a produce a plan, and from that plan, action. It is within your power to make this happen. It is within your power to initiate a program of exploration that will lead in time to the greatest flowering of human potential, knowledge, progress, and freedom that history has ever known. I ask that you do so.

Thank you for your attention."

Regards,
Mark Eby