A consensus has developed that we should get back to the Moon. The Trump Administration has made returning to the Moon official policy. Congress seems supportive. And other countries who have never been to the Moon are eager to get there. But there’s a huge roadblock in America’s way. A massive obstacle that could make a Moon program impossible. And we are creating that obstacle despite the fact that the.. Read More

The Space Development Steering Committee has called for three new space programs that harness the powers of America’s entrepreneurial space companies—companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. One would be a public-private Moon program. Another would be a public-private Mars program. And the third of these entrepreneurial space programs would target the asteroids. SpaceX already has a Mars program in the works. Blue Origin has a Blue.. Read More

As an organizational member of the Alliance for Space Development, the Space Development Steering Committee is calling on its members and supporters to participate in the 2017 August Home District Blitz. The blitz uses a grassroots network of volunteers to meet with Senators, Representatives, and staffers in their local district offices. The objective is to raise legislative awareness of the Citizens’ Space Agenda. The agenda for the August 2017 blitz.. Read More

The Space Development Steering Committee calls on NASA to abandon its dysfunctional and hideously expensive Space Launch System and its overpriced and under-capable Orion capsule and to replace these money-eating monstrosities with three private industry initiatives, one for the Moon, one for asteroids, and another for Mars. Yes, the Space Development Steering Committee is calling for private companies to develop our Mars, Moon, and asteroid programs. In conjunction with NASA… Read More

The Space Development Steering Committee calls for NASA to establish a new COTS program, a program to establish a permanent human base on the Moon. A Moon program designed to get the heavy lifting done by private companies—SpaceX, Blue Origin, Bigelow Aerospace, United Launch Alliance, and any other companies eager to put down stakes on the big wheel of green cheese over our heads. What is a COTS program? COTS stands for “Commercial.. Read More

Elon Musk’s announcement that he will put two paying passengers in a loop-the-loop around the Moon in 2018 has implications that no one seems to see. It can cause an earthquake at NASA. On February 15, NASA announced that it was studying an idea designed to give publicity to the Trump administration. On the first flight of NASA’s Frankenrocket, the Space Launch System—the rocket that will cost $30 billion to develop.. Read More

At the end of 2015, several of the most august science journals in the world looked over America’s space accomplishments for the year and concluded that there were none. Space, said the journals, was in a holding pattern. It is important not to make that same mistake about 2016. The big news of 2016 was that 49 years after the USA landed men on the Moon, America finally has an achievable Mars.. Read More

Al Globus has published a paper outlining an easier way to build a space settlement. He describes a relatively simple, near-term path to the first true space settlements in easy to understand language. The first key to this path is that Earth’s magnetic field provides excellent radiation protection for settlements in Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO), orbits near Earth directly above the equator. The second is that people can tolerate much.. Read More

Artist’s conception of the Red Dragon spacecraft landing on Mars. Credit: SpaceX If you’ve kept your eyes peeled, you’ve noticed history in the making. A private individual has announced a Mars plan that’s more realistic and more likely to happen in the near future than any planetary settlement plan that any of the 70 space agencies on planet earth have conceived. The first step? Elon Musk has said that he.. Read More

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Crown’s Space Solar Power as the #1 Idea in the Federal Government For the first time, a visionary space development idea tops the agenda of America’s foreign policy establishment—Space Based Solar Power, an idea that could completely solve climate change, completely get us off foreign oil, allow a first world life-style for the entire world, swept the D3 innovation awards! On 2 March, an.. Read More