ALBERT

Description: Human exploration of the solar system can be said to have begun with the Apollo landings on the Moon. The Apollo Project was publicly funded with the narrow technical objective of landing human beings on the Moon. The transportation and life support systems were specialized technical designs, developed in a project management environment tailored to that objective. Most scenarios for future human exploration assume a similar long-term commitment of public funds to a narrowly focused project managed by a large, monolithic organization. Advocates of human exploration of space have not yet been successful in generating the political momentum required to initiate such a project to go to the Moon or to Mars. Alternative scenarios of exploration may relax some or all of the parameters of organizational complexity, great expense, narrow technical focus, required public funding, and control by a single organization. Development of the Moon using private investment is quite possibly a necessary condition for alternative scenarios to succeed.

Description: Throughout recorded history, small groups of explorers have Pushed back the edge of the frontier and opened up new territories for others to follow. As the 20th Century closes, history will record that in the 1960's humankind opened the vast frontier beyond Earth's atmosphere. Although the Apollo program blazed a trail of exploration to the Moon, the development of space has only reached into low Earth orbit. The Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs, and the communication and scientific satellite networks established in orbit around the Earth, are all stepping stones that will enable explorers to venture once again beyond our home planet. Exploration is difficult. It is difficult for the people and machines that travel in extreme environments and endure harsh conditions, and it is difficult for the national leaders who must champion and fund the programs that lead to discovery and reward. Christopher Columbus spent many years meeting with the Kings of Portugal, England, and France only to see his dream of sailing west into the vast Atlantic with ships and crew. discredited. Queen Isabella of Spain was willing to look beyond the many problems plaguing her own shores and see the potential reward for her investment in the future. The voyages of Columbus set the stage for more Spanish explorers, who turned Spain into a great world power. The Apollo program and the unpiloted Lunar Orbiter, Surveyor, Mariner and Viking spacecraft that NASA launched in the 1966's &1970's were our country's first investment, in the exploration of the solar system. These human and robotic missions rewarded us with the first close views of the lunar and martian surfaces, and laid before our eyes territories as vast as all the continents of Earth combined. The Lunar Prospector, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, and Mars Pathfinder and Global Surveyor missions are continuing our scientific conquest of the inner solar system, leading the way for humans to follow.