Astronauts Who Have Publicly Criticized Missions to Moon and Mars

September 19, 2020 11:13 PM

Could someone provide me with links from NPR interview or Slate Gabfest where someone associated with NASA or ISS talks about how mismanagement there has led them to believe that crewed missions are not a great allocation of resources?

I have a friend who studied astrophysics and we were talking this evening about whether or not we should be prioritizing crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. I remembered that the hosts of the Slate Political Gabfest have a long-running distaste for crewed missions. In general, they're more sympathetic to the "Whitey on the Moon" critique of misplaced allocation of resources than they are to the "unexpected advances as a result of exploration. Anyway, I THOUGHT I remembered that an astronaut or someone from a space agency had written a book and been interviewed on the program in the last couple years and talked to them about how in his experience with the ISS and the people at NASA, it's a huge waste.

Am I misremembering an interview or did I put words into someone's mouth? Could someone provide me with some interviews from public radio or Slate where someone associated with the space agencies talks about how crewed missions aren't a great idea? Was harder to find in transcripts than I thought.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/political-gabfest-trump-racist-attack-census-moon.html

posted by ABlanca to Technology (2 answers total)

Can't help you with specific articles but as a contractor with 25 years of NASA experience I believe I can shed a little light on this subject. First off I doubt you'll find any astronaut criticizing resources allocated to (hu)manned space flight. They all want to fly, and fly again, and any discouraging words in public would put that chance in jeopardy. Another aspect will be regional -- if the 'someone associated with NASA' is from Texas, they probably have ties to JSC so again, they'll be pro-crew. However, there's more (some would say, way more) to NASA than Manned Space Flight. Maybe your NASA person is from the West coast -- especially those associated with JPL have little patience with the way the astronauts and the ISS eat away at the budget, and have so little to show for that expense in comparison with the stupendous results from our interplanetary probes (or, if they're on the East coast, from our space telescopes).
posted by Rash at 8:35 AM on September 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I think you are remembering a This American Life episode with incredibly indifferent Apollo astronaut Frank Borman. Even if it wasn’t that exact interview, he’s pretty known for his “couldn’t give two shits” attitude towards being of the very few human beings to see the moon up close. In fact, he retired instead of taking a mission that would have put him on the moon itself.

So, its definitely not because of how NASA allocates it’s resources, but more of a “I think space is boring and stupid”. But I guess that’s what you are thinking of.
posted by sideshow at 10:41 AM on September 20, 2020