{"id":19602,"date":"2015-09-29T17:13:51","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T09:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-veteran-lori-garver-on-space-the-endless-frontier-for-commercial-ventures\/"},"modified":"2015-09-29T17:13:51","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T09:13:51","slug":"nasa-veteran-lori-garver-on-space-the-endless-frontier-for-commercial-ventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-veteran-lori-garver-on-space-the-endless-frontier-for-commercial-ventures\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA veteran Lori Garver on space: The \u2018endless\u2019 frontier for commercial ventures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lori
During her stint as NASA\u2019s deputy administrator, Lori Garver visited Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight in 2011 for a NASA Future Forum. (Credit: Ted Huetter \/ Museum of Flight)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former NASA official Lori Garver\u2019s resume is filled with highlights from politics and government service \u2013 going back to John Glenn\u2019s presidential campaign \u2013 but when it comes to America\u2019s space program, her heart\u2019s with commercial ventures.<\/p>\n

\"geekwiresummit-logo\"\u201cThe opportunities in commercial space are endless,\u201d she told GeekWire. \u201cGovernment opportunities are not endless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garver, who helped draw up the Obama administration\u2019s space policy and served as NASA\u2019s deputy administrator from 2009 to 2013, will lay out the opportunities for commercial space ventures \u2013 and the limitations of government space efforts \u2013 at the GeekWire Summit on Thursday.<\/p>\n

During her decades-long career, Garver has worked as a spokeswoman for the National Space Society and NASA\u2019s associate administrator for policy and plans as well as a space industry consultant. In 2002, she came close to going into orbit on a Russian Soyuz craft as a privately funded \u201cAstroMom.\u201d (The requisite sponsorships and TV deal didn\u2019t come through.)<\/p>\n

After leaving NASA, the 54-year-old executive became general manager for the Air Line Pilots Association, the position she holds today. But even though her current role is more down to Earth, she continues to keep tabs on the space effort. For example, she has sharply criticized NASA\u2019s long-range space vision, including the budget-straining plan to build a heavy-lift Space Launch System and send astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid in the 2020s.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MQRPbZNRKAo<\/p>\n

What\u2019s now known as the Asteroid Redirect Mission will be \u201cabsolutely up for grabs\u201d when the next president takes office in 2017, Garver said: \u201cI don\u2019t think NASA is behind it, in a lot of ways, and Congress certainly isn\u2019t behind it.\u201d Even NASA\u2019s plan to send astronauts to Mars and its moons in the 2030s may be retooled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing, almost, that with every mission that comes up, NASA has to mention the \u2018Journey to Mars,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s become a drinking game around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The way Garver sees it, giving the private sector more of a role in space activities \u2013 ranging from resupplying the International Space Station to sending spaceships to Mars \u2013 is the best way for NASA to accelerate the pace of space exploration and exploitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about developing capability, in case the president says, \u2018Hey, we want to do something with the Chinese. What have you got?\u2019 And at that point, you have your geopolitical purpose and your capability,\u201d she said.<\/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

But commercial space ventures aren\u2019t just about NASA contracts and geopolitical plays. They\u2019re also about finding new opportunities for earthly profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you get cheaper launches, that allows cheaper satellites,\u201d Garver said. And that, in turn, opens up new applications for space-based technology.<\/p>\n

For example, hyperspectral data from remote-sensing satellites can tell hedge fund managers how crop yields are shaping up, which gives them an edge in the commodity futures markets. \u201cThere are investors doing that,\u201d Garver said.<\/p>\n

The promise of commercial space reminds Garver of the early days of aviation, when a wide spectrum of scientists and tinkerers were trying to figure out how to make heavier-than-air flying machines work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government-funded guy dropped his airplane into the Potomac,\u201d Garver noted, \u201cwhile the Wright Brothers succeeded on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Science reporter Alan Boyle will have a fireside chat with Lori Garver<\/strong> about the future of commercial spaceflight and the coming transformation of the world\u2019s airspace at 2:10 p.m. Thursday during the GeekWire Summit. It\u2019s not too late to register.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During her stint as NASA\u2019s deputy administrator, Lori Garver visited Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight in 2011 for a NASA Future Forum. (Credit: Ted Huetter \/ Museum of Flight) Former NASA official Lori Garver\u2019s resume is filled with highlights from politics and government service \u2013 going back to John Glenn\u2019s presidential campaign \u2013 but when it comes to […]<\/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":[291,5619,190],"class_list":["post-19602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-geekwire-summit","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19602"}],"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=19602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}