Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Appendix C Statement of Task Workshop on National Space Policy November 12-13, 2003 Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center Irvine, California Space Studies Board and Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board The workshop will utilize brief presentations, pane! discussions, and general discussions to explore aspects of the question " What shouic! be the principalpurposes, goals, ancipriorities of U.S. civil space?" To do so. the workshop participants will be asked to consoler the following Questions: 1. ~ 1 What mixture of cultural, social, economic, and geopolitical factors has lect the United States government to invest substantially more in the civilian space program than any other nation, both in absolute terms and as a portion of national wealth? 2. What is the appropriate balance among these factors as the nation carries out a searching reassessment of its space policies and programs in the aftermath of the Columbia acciclent? 3. What are the appropriate roles of the fecleral government? 4. Is the level of investment today appropriate, too high, or too Tow, given other clemancts on the Fecleral budget? What principles should be applied in setting priorities for space activities? What principles apply to clefining proper balance across space activities? What role does in-situ human presence play in achieving the purposes that drive government investment in space? 8. What principles shouicl guide risk-benefit assessments for human space flight? 9. What should be the balance between humans and robots? 1 O. What should be the role of the International Space Station? 11. What are our needs for space transportation systems? The goal of the workshop will not be to clevelop definitive answers to these questions but to air a range of views and perspectives that will serve to inform later broacler public discussion of such questions. A summary report of the workshop, which will include extenclect abstracts of remarks prepared by inctiviclual panelists, will be published by the National Research Council soon after the workshop. 49
