{"id":19597,"date":"2015-10-02T23:04:28","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/former-astronaut-nasa-certainly-not-dead-but-they-are-lost-at-the-moment\/"},"modified":"2015-10-02T23:04:28","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:04:28","slug":"former-astronaut-nasa-certainly-not-dead-but-they-are-lost-at-the-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/former-astronaut-nasa-certainly-not-dead-but-they-are-lost-at-the-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Former astronaut: NASA \u2018certainly not dead, but they are lost at the moment\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Former
Former astronaut Ed Lu (right) at the 2015 GeekWire Summit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, who logged more than 206 days in space over his career, said there are a lot of interesting things going on in space exploration right now \u2014 they\u2019re just not coming from the organization you would expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt [NASA] is certainly not dead, but they are lost at the moment, especially on the manned side,\u201d he said on stage at the GeekWire Summit on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"Edward
Ed Lu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lu is still a big believer in manned space exploration, even as robots are becoming increasingly capable of doing the job with less costs and risk to human lives. But Lu argued there are certain things robots will never be able to do \u2014 namely colonize another planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe debate about humans versus robots is beyond stupid,\u201d he said. \u201cMoving people outward is the whole reason for going. Otherwise, what are we doing? What is the purpose of going if not to live, go places, do things, spread humanity?\u201d<\/p>\n

Unmanned missions are easier because you can do them one at a time and find success through scientific breakthroughs. Lu said manned missions, on the other hand, have to be planned with a broader strategy or you\u2019re just \u201cdoing random stuff.\u201d And that\u2019s the piece NASA is missing.<\/p>\n

Asked if he thinks we\u2019ll get back to manned missions, Lu said he\u2019s counting on the private sector to get us there.<\/p>\n

After his NASA career, Lu joined Google\u2019s satellite imaging team for its maps applications. He was at the forefront of a trend that has since taken off as more private companies have gotten involved in space exploration.<\/p>\n

\"Ed
Ed Lu at the GeekWire Summit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once an expensive endeavor reserved for government agencies, private companies \u2014 especially around the Seattle area \u2014 have recently taken a stab at creating profitable business models around exploring outer space. Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin, Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX and Paul Allen\u2019s Vulcan Aerospace are all standing at the forefront of the blossoming industry.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what has Lu excited about the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019m actually not hopeful about NASA doing it,\u201d Lu said. \u201cI probably shouldn\u2019t say this as a former astronaut, but I think NASA lost its way. I think what\u2019s going to push them forward is private companies doing some interesting things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lu went on to tell a story from his days at NASA. Famous astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin once came to speak to the team, saying they\u2019ve been given a gift that they wouldn\u2019t appreciate until later: the ability to hold the attention of any school child for five minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is something about doing big, grand things that gets people excited,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there is room for these big things. \u2026 That really does get people interested in learning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former astronaut Ed Lu (right) at the 2015 GeekWire Summit. Former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, who logged more than 206 days in space over his career, said there are a lot of interesting things going on in space exploration right now \u2014 they\u2019re just not coming from the organization you would expect. \u201cIt [NASA] is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,5398,190,4849,316],"class_list":["post-19597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-ed-lu","tag-nasa","tag-space-exploration","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}