Space Settlement Institute Responds to NASA RFI's - September 5, 2004
The President's Space Commission Report released on June 4 is radically reshaping the way NASA does business. As part of the new overall objective of establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon and later on Mars, the Commission's Report mandates NASA to rely much more heavily on private industry to help accomplish all space exploration objectives.
NASA is taking steps to implement the guidelines in the Commission's Report. Two new Requests for Information (RFI's) were released by NASA on August 16 soliciting proposals from private industry, academia, and the general public. The Space Settlement Institute has responded by letter and email to both these requests. The RFI's involve the following two areas of NASA operations and policy:
The Institute encourages implementation of privately financed Lunar return missions in addition to or complemented by NASA's own efforts. Two effective methods of encouraging privately financed Lunar missions have been identified:
the "monetary prize" concept as described in the Commission's Report, and
the "land claim recognition" legislation proposed by the Space Settlement Initiative.
The monetary prize method suggested by the President's Commission would create a large cash incentive for private industry groups (such as corporations or consortia) to independently finance Lunar missions. From Recommendation 5-2 of the Commission's Report:
"... the Commission suggests that as an example of a particularly challenging prize concept, $100 million to $1 billion could be offered to the first organization to place humans on the Moon and sustain them for a fixed period before they return to Earth."
Used together with monetary prizes or as a standalone protocol, land claim recognition legislation would create a strong incentive for private industry to independently mount Lunar expeditions. In response to the private entity establishing a permanent base on the Moon, the U.S. government could "recognize" the private entity's claim to a large tract of Lunar land surrounding its base, which the entity could then sell or mortgage to generate capital to repay its investment and collect a huge profit.
Both of these private industry incentives were addressed in the response letters sent to NASA by the Institute on September 5 (to view an example, click here). In addition to an Executive Summary cover letter, the Institute also enclosed a copy of the Land Claim Recognition (LCR) brief, to provide details for NASA officials who might not yet be familiar with the land claim recognition concept.
Note - The LCR Brief can be viewed electronically in .pdf format through the LCR page.
If you agree with the objectives advocated by the Institute in its response to NASA's RFI's, please contact your Congressmen through email or by postal mail and express your support. The Contact Congress and the Media page provides access to the postal and email addresses of the Senators and Congressman for your district. Writing to Congress makes a difference - it has been said that for every letter or email they receive, Congressmen assume there are at least 500 other people who feel the same way but did not take the time to write.
