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We are going to take people back to the moon: Michael Griffin

— Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

AIMING HIGH: “We will be open to the idea of cooperating with India in human space flights for our efforts beyond the [International] Space Station.”

Michael Griffin, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is a certified flight instructor with instrument and multiengine landings. In Hyderabad for the International Astronautical Congress, he spoke to The Hindu on September 25. He said, the International Space Station (ISS) programme, which the U.S. has partnered with 15 other countries, could be an “excellent model” for the plans to send people again to the moon and then to Mars. Excerpts:

Broadly speaking, we are going to take people back to the moon. I hope it will be done as part of an international effort and we will establish a research base or outpost on the moon much as we have one in Antarctica today. Fifty years ago, such efforts were very tiny and today, they are robust and thriving. And the Arctic is a very hostile place. So we have these things little bit by little bit and we make progress. As I said yesterday, it was my hope and I believe that when we meet again in this conference in 2057, we will be looking back 20 years at the 20th anniversary of landing humans on Mars. I think that will happen.

… I spoke to you about the Orion crew exploration vehicle and we have recently put up the contract for the Ares rocket for putting people in space. This system will replace the access to space by human beings that is currently furnished by the space shuttle. After that, we want to construct Ares-5 rocket and we will need to construct again a human lunar lander, bigger than that we had during the Apollo years. This system altogether will allow people to return to the moon.

When you begin to spend as much money on societal applications as we are already spending, then may be I will accept your criticism. Our space programme is larger than the next three or four biggest space programmes offered together. We are spending $1.5 billion this year on earth science programmes alone. We are spending $5.5 billion this year on space science in all forms. So I think we are doing pretty well. I am sorry if some people are disappointed but we are doing pretty well.

I don’t know. It remains to be seen. We are open to such cooperation. Over 60 per cent of our scientific satellite missions are done cooperatively with other nations. So almost two-thirds are done cooperatively. Our entire manned space flight programme is an international cooperative venture with 15 other nations. The centrepiece of our programme right now is the space station. We hope that when we return to the moon, it will be done with our [International] Space Station partners and others, may be India.

So a huge majority of the U.S. civil space programme is cooperative and we are open to such ventures, whether they be in science, applications, astrophysics or human space flight. I don’t think your readers probably know that such a huge majority of our programme is cooperative.

As I have said earlier, by the end of the decade or the next decade, we expect to have people back on the moon. We expect that it would lead to the development of a small research station or outpost there.

We don’t have any specific plans for cooperation on specific missions with India. At this point, we are on Chandrayaan-I and exchange of scientific data. We are open to discussions on Chandrayaan-II or other missions. We will be open to the idea of cooperating with India in human space flights for our efforts beyond the [International] Space Station, which could again be taking back people to the moon and establishing a research station there… The Indian Government has not made any specific proposal on those lines. We have suggested that we will be open to such discussions. I hope that happens. You have a capable organisation in ISRO and a capable Chairman [Mr. Nair] and I am pleased to have the opportunity to know him and may be the opportunity to work with ISRO. At this point, the discussions are in an exploratory stage.

The Space Station programme, may be with broader partnerships, is an excellent model. Different countries can furnish different modules or different equipment according to the agreements that are developed. The whole can be integrated than some of the parts. I would like to remind you that the Space Station exists for the purpose of doing science. But only 25 per cent of the laboratory equipment in the Space Station comes from the U.S. There are Russian, Japanese and European Science Laboratories and the U.S. Science Laboratory. [The U.S.] is one of the four. The U.S. role has been one of coordination and to supply the infrastructure for the Space Station, the power, the thermal control and water. The U.S. supplies the backbone of the Station and one of the laboratories. But three-fourths of the capability of the Station comes from international partners. I think that in the next couple of decades, as we look forward to the moon and Mars, it is reasonable to expect that that model will hold again. When we get back to the moon, we are going to need a power station. Who is going to build that? That is an interesting question. I hope we will have a partnership and different partners will step forward with building of things that are in their interest.

As an example of how a small nation can make a really key contribution to infrastructure, I will offer Canada. All the robotic manipulators we have on the space shuttle — the [remote manipulator] arm of the shuttle and the arm of the Station — come from Canada. It is not an enormous investment. But it is significant for Canada because it has a much smaller population but produces enormous amount of capability for the space shuttle and the Space Station. Canada is a close partner of the U.S. precisely because they have invested well. They have invested thoughtfully in being a part of the programme for relatively a small amount of money. That can serve as a model for other nations that wish to be involved with us. After all, what is one of the greatest adventures people can have is pushing the frontier. So if more nations wish to be involved with us, it is an excellent model which may happen.

The ISS programme is coming to a completion in its development. So I don’t think there are a lot of partnership opportunities in the Space Station programme. I am using it as a model of how we might do the lunar programme later or the Mars programme after that. It is a good model.

Everything except Pluto.

More of what we have done before and doing it in a more sophisticated way with newer technologies. Mars Science Laboratory is enormously more advanced than the two Mars rovers [Opportunity and Spirit] which are there at the present time… I don’t think our plans beyond Mars Science Laboratory are that far.

We have talked about the Mars Sample Return Mission for many years and it is still in the conceptual stage. That is a programme where we are very definitely looking for cooperation with other nations.

Our Mars efforts right now consist of Phoneix which is on the way to Mars, and the Mars Science Laboratory which is being built.

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We are going to take people back to the moon: Michael Griffin

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