In their separate speeches, Greason and Spudis share many key points. Both agree that human settlement of space is perhaps the overarching long-term goal of human spaceflight, and both see the utilization of resources in space as essential to making such an effort sustainable over the long haul.
The above quote is from an essay by Jeff Foust in The Space Review. It is in reference to the most recent National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference (ISDC) held in Huntsville, Alabama.
I put up link to a video of Greason's speech here.
Foust has a link to a pdf file of Spudis' ideas here.
I tend to agree with them both about what we need to be doing. In an earlier post, I argued for a Moon First strategy. This is in contrast to a Zubrin type approach that would go to Mars directly. In the words of Spudis
“We’re going to the Moon to learn the skills to live and work productively on another world,”
Those skills, he added, can be grouped into three categories: development of a transportation system, the ability to safely live on another world, and developing resources that can be exported for profit—or, as Spudis put it, “arrive, survive, and thrive.”
As Foust puts it, they seem to agree on many points. But the future of the agency is where they seem to disagree. Spudis believes that human space exploration is going to continue regardless, whereas Greason thinks the agency is at risk. I tend to agree with Greason- NASA and we had better get our act together and quick. I think it may be even worse than Greason fears. If we don't do this now, we may never do it. "We" meaning the USA.
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