Review Of Rationales For Space Activity

R. C. Parkinson. (1998), JBIS, 51, pp.275-280

Refcode: 1998.51.275

Abstract:

The existence of an IAA Working Croup to Study a Comprehensive Rationale for Astronautics is symptomatic of a problem which has faced the astronautical community since the height of the Apollo programme. Progressive reports in the US on the future shape of NASA’s Space Programme [1,2,3] have had a consistent vision of the progressive expansion of a manned Space infrastructure first into Earth orbit (space stations), then returning to the Moon, and then extending to Mars – following a route proposed by von Braun in 1952 [4]. Various arguments have been deployed in support of these proposals, but none has been successful.