Revitalizing NASA? A five-point plan

Abstract

Following its early successes, NASA has taken a number of mis-steps, resulting in a loss of focus at the agency. Over-reliance on the Space Shuttle, treating it as an operational rather than an experimental vehicle, and the massive-cost-for-limited-results debacle of the ISS are chief among them, while the new and expensive Project Constellation targetting the Moon and Mars also promises little return. NASA needs to revitalize itself by pursuing missions more relevant to ordinary people—solar energy generation, planetary protection and sustainability, development of a robotically assembled Moon colony, among others—by restructuring itself and by working much more closely with industry and private entrepreneurs.