{"id":19598,"date":"2015-10-01T20:25:40","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T12:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/red-planet-vs-blue-planet-lori-garver-looks-ahead-to-mars-and-the-future-of-space\/"},"modified":"2015-10-01T20:25:40","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T12:25:40","slug":"red-planet-vs-blue-planet-lori-garver-looks-ahead-to-mars-and-the-future-of-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/red-planet-vs-blue-planet-lori-garver-looks-ahead-to-mars-and-the-future-of-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Red planet vs. blue planet: Lori Garver looks ahead to Mars and the future of space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lori
Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver chats with Alan Boyle on stage during the 2015 GeekWire Summit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If we want to send astronauts to Mars, we better find a way to do it within 10 years. And if we want to discover a blue planet around an alien sun, there\u2019s a good chance it could happen within five years.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver sized up the future of space travel and exploration at the GeekWire Summit on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Today, Garver is general manager of the Air Line Pilots Association. But back in 2008, she helped set the space policy trajectory for the Obama administration, and then took the No. 2 spot at the space agency as Administrator Charles Bolden\u2019s deputy. During her four years in that role, she played a key part in NASA\u2019s shift from the space shuttle era to the commercial spaceflight era.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s ahead? Here\u2019s some of what Garver had to say during Thursday\u2019s fireside chat, edited for length and clarity:<\/p>\n

How will the discovery of liquid water on Mars affect future NASA missions to the Red Planet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look to the future, we\u2019ll have more rovers, more orbiters, and ultimately we will be the \u2018rovers.\u2019 We people are a lot more efficient than rovers. \u2026 An astronaut, I\u2019m told, can do in one day what a rover does in 100 days. Now, will people go soon? NASA would love to, but NASA\u2019s a government agency, and we all know how well that works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

NASA is talking about sending humans to Mars in the 2030s, Does it need to take that long?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is, there\u2019s a role for government in the investment and the research, and then there\u2019s a role when the private sector and the markets take over. Is exploring Mars with people a government type of program? Likely. The first few times for sure. But how you get there doesn\u2019t have to be just a government-funded program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government takes a very long time to innovate. The plan they are on now would use engines that were developed in the 1970s. Sixty years later, I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s our best way to go to Mars. The key would be to get those costs down, to build things that we can afford to fly. \u2026 I think we\u2019ve seen with some of the newer companies, that when you allow competition, you drive the cost down, you drive the time scale down.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been involved in politics since John Glenn\u2019s presidential campaign: What do you think will happen with space policy during the next administration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, the space program\u2019s goals are set by the president. Kennedy is the obvious example, when he declared that we would go to the moon. But we did that to beat the Russians. We did it for a geopolitical purpose. My view is, no matter who is president, we have to have a geopolitical purpose to send humans to Mars, or go back to the moon, or go to an asteroid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we need is the capability to do it in a time frame and at a cost that is achievable \u2013 and I think that\u2019s within 10 years. We\u2019re not there right now. What would it take for NASA to get there? Frankly, I think the next president will have a lot to say about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span> NASA\u2019s best days are ahead of us, and those are all technologies which then can be utilized here on Earth \u2013 for new markets, and for all of you to get sick-rich off of and make the world a better place while doing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the big technological innovation to watch for in space in 2018?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGetting the costs down to get to space. That\u2019s key, that\u2019s been a barrier, and that is happening. Certainly by 2018 you will have multiple launches for a lot less money. That opens up what you\u2019re doing in space to new markets \u2013 whether that\u2019s broadband communications or remote sensing, having the capability with new types of imaging to manage the resources on this planet better from space.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarther out, 2018 or 2019 is when we\u2019re going to launch the James Webb Space Telescope. I have often asked the scientists behind that what we have most to look forward to. They believe we will, within the first six months of Webb being turned on, see a blue planet orbiting a distant star for the first time. That would change our perspective on our own blue planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, NASA\u2019s best days are ahead of us, and those are all technologies which then can be utilized here on Earth \u2013 for new markets, and for all of you to get sick-rich off of and make the world a better place while doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver chats with Alan Boyle on stage during the 2015 GeekWire Summit. If we want to send astronauts to Mars, we better find a way to do it within 10 years. And if we want to discover a blue planet around an alien sun, there\u2019s a good chance it could happen within five […]<\/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":[291,559,367,190],"class_list":["post-19598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-exoplanets","tag-mars","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598"}],"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=19598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}