Fri, Feb 05, 2010
Moviemaker Served On NASA Advisory Council During George W.
Bush Administration
James Cameron, the writer and director of "Avatar" and
"Titanic" who served on the NASA Advisory Council from 2003 to
2005, has published an op-ed in The Washington Post endorsing
commercial human spaceflight and President Obama's new plan for
NASA. His op-ed, titled "The Right Way Forward On Space
Exploration," posits that the Obama administration makes the right
move in shifting the responsibility for taking people to low earth
orbit to private industry.
In the op-ed, Cameron states, "By selecting commercial solutions
for transportation to the international space station, NASA is
empowering American free enterprise to do what it does best:
develop technology quickly and efficiently in a competitive
environment." He goes on to say that the move will allow NASA to do
what it does best: manned and unmanned deep space exploration.
Cameron foresees the money saved by contracting with private
companies to supply and carry astronauts to the space station as
being re-invested in eventual missions to the moon, Mars, and
beyond, as well as in advanced propulsion systems to make
spaceflight more practical and affordable.
Cameron cites an article by X Prize Chairman Peter Diamandis,
which appears on the X Prize website, that states "The U.S.
Government doesn't build your computers, nor do you fly aboard a
U.S. Government owned and operated airline. Private industry
routinely takes technologies pioneered by the government and turns
them into cheap, reliable and robust industries. This has happened
in aviation, air mail, computers, and the Internet. It's about time
that it happen in space."
Peter Diamandis
"I applaud President Obama's bold decision for NASA to focus on
building a space exploration program that can drive innovation and
provide inspiration for the world," Cameron concludes. "This is the
path that can make our dreams in space a reality."
FMI: www.commercialspaceflight.org
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