Former NASA Astronaut and U.S. Sen. Harrison Schmitt (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)
‘The current space race — and there is a space race — involves the moon. We’re just not participating right now,’ says former U.S. Sen. Harrison Schmitt
In the early 60s, then 29-year-old geologist Harrison Hagan “Jack” Schmitt applied to be a “scientist-astronaut” with NASA’s Apollo program.
He was selected, and after five years of rigorous training, the Santa Rita, N.M. native became the last man to step on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Today, Schmitt, who also served one term in the U.S. Senate from New Mexico, says he’s concerned that President Barack Obama may be ceding the space race to China, India and Russia. Though NASA is proceeding with a plan to return men to the moon, there are questions about whether the Obama administration will increase funding to ensure that mission happens or scrap it altogether.
Meanwhile, China and Russia are currently planning to put men on the Moon by the 2030s, and Japan is working on a probe.
“The Chinese clearly have the technical capability to take over. Whether they have the level of managerial expertise is still to be determined,” Schmitt said in a recent interview with NMPolitics.net. “I don’t think the Russians can do it with their economy and deteriorating society.”
The United States, meanwhile, has limited itself to Earth orbits since Schmitt’s 13-day Apollo 17 mission.
Schmitt, 74, is in a unique position to comment on space-related public policy and funding. He chaired the NASA Advisory Council from November 2005 to November 2008. And while he was in the U.S. Senate (1976-1982) he served as the ranking Republican member of the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee.
“I’m concerned with the future of the country, and one aspect of that is whether or not the United States is going to be the leading space-faring nation,” Schmitt said.
“All indications appear, if only by their silence, that this administration is planning to abandon that,” he said. “If they do, the Chinese probably will take over deep space. At the present time it looks as though this administration is willing to abrogate that position to the Chinese.”
Questions about America’s future in space
Schmitt collecting rocks on the moon in 1972. (NASA photo)
Last week, officials with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that their moon impact probe, Chandrayaan-1, had sent proof back to controllers, before its communications signal was lost 10 months ago, that it had detected signs of non-liquefied water in the moon’s soil.
While the lunar water discovery is a significant boost for India in its space race against China, it could also benefit NASA, which has had plans to send astronauts back to the moon more quickly than China and Russia, and perhaps on to Mars.
But a board appointed by Obama to review NASA’s manned space exploration program recently concluded that the agency’s goals, which include having people on the lunar surface again by 2020, were unrealistic without an extra $3 billion a year from the government to develop a new rocket.
On Oct. 27, NASA is due to take a big step toward its lunar return program when it launches Ares 1-X — a prototype of the rocket that is intended to replace the Space Shuttle and carry astronauts back to the Moon — at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
But Schmitt is under the impression that NASA managers are waiting for the signal from the White House as to whether the $3 billion rocket will be scrapped in favor of cheaper, safer, commercial models.
That’s because the board Obama appointed suggested that there may be other alternatives to return astronauts to the moon. Though NASA is proceeding with testing, there are currently a lot of questions about whether the board, which has yet to issue its full report, will recommend that the Obama administration find another way to get back to the moon or scrap the moon mission altogether.
Schmitt says America’s back up plan Is ‘dicey’
Schmitt, who authored the book Return to the Moon in 2006, doesn’t want the latter to happen, but he says NASA needs more money to stay viable in space.
“America’s own space program has been struggling to overcome chronic underfunding, technical problems and a lack of political commitment,” Schmitt said.
“It appears our backup-backup plan is to pay the Russians to take Americans to the International Space Station that we built and funded,” Schmitt said. “I think it’s a very, very dicey situation to have our use of the international space station dependent on Russian launches.”
Schmitt said if he had his way NASA never would have abandoned the Saturn 5 rocket, an expensive rocket that carried all Apollo lunar missions but hasn’t been used since.
“That was an unbelievable technology. Highly reliable and very robust,” Schmitt said. “We could have built space stations with it, and we did. Skylab was a space station and we could have added to that.”