If you haven’t been keeping track of the Obama administration’s plans for the future of NASA, check out what Buzz Aldrin has to say in an article on Huffington Post.
He sums up the administrations actions so far and the proposed NASA budget, and then goes on to discuss where this change of direction might take the space program. He says,
“…A better way to spend our taxpayer dollars would be not focused on the Moon race, but on something … called a “Flexible Path.” Flexible in the sense that it would redirect NASA towards developing the capability of voyaging to more distant locations in space, such as rendezvous with possibly threatening asteroids, or comets, or even flying by Mars to land on its moons. Many different destinations and missions would be enabled by that approach, not just one.”
The new direction would be great news for all us space junkies (like this one, who got sucked into watching Apollo 13 the other night on HBO, even though I own it and have watched it a zillion times).
And just as important to this blog, it’s also great inspiration to everyone whose worldbuilding and storytelling is drawn to near future-space travel settings. Among the possibilities Aldrin mentions: commercial space flight becoming an established industry; a ship that cycles between Earth and Mars; and a space program that would soon be able to take us anywhere in the solar system! And from the Space.com news article about the new budget: inflatable space houses!
Space-travel worldbuilders and storytellers, fire up your rockets!









