EDITORIAL

Commence the Era of LaRouche!
The NASA Mission in Context

by Michael G. Steger

[Print version of this editorial]

April 7—On Monday, April 1, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine made clear that President Trump’s declaration of his space policy one week prior—a declaration issued literally just days after the conclusion of the attempted Trump legal assassination by Robert Mueller—was not simply another paper proposal.

That declaration—which began, “This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps, someday, to many worlds beyond”—was fine in itself, but similar to many proposals which have remained on paper; it was not yet “on the ground.”

Yet, Bridenstine’s presentation, to a rare, publicized town hall with top leaders of NASA’s main directorates, for all of NASA and the world to see, made clear that Trump’s program is not a “paper policy,” but a tangible change in U.S. economic policy. Bridenstine’s entire presentation can be watched on YouTube. The basics are clear:

1. President Trump has moved up the time frame for a manned Moon landing from ten years to five, meaning that it will happen before the end of his second term. Bridenstine said repeatedly that the President has taken personal responsibility to make this happen during his Presidency. It was also clear that Bridenstine is putting his own career and credibility on the line. Two or three times he said he had heard the Lucy and Charlie Brown football story more than a hundred times since arriving at NASA (the ball is pulled from beneath NASA like a sadistic joke, or the policy objective is changed from the Moon to Mars to an Asteroid, creating institutional whiplash), and so he said definitively: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of us. These are the moments, if—no, when—we succeed, that we will tell our grandchildren about. The President is committed to this.”

2. The President has insisted that we will go to the Moon with the intent of developing and using lunar resources, and we will plan for a sustained human presence, and a future launch from the Moon to Mars. This is the Krafft Ehricke-Lyndon LaRouche policy without compromise. He made it clear we are going to the South Pole of the Moon, specifically for the water-ice resources—for use in water, oxygen, and rocket fuel potential.

3. The President has insisted that we will go to the Moon with international partners. Though left unsaid, the leading partner in manned-space exploration today is Russia, and China is the leader in current lunar exploration.

4. The President has insisted that we will put men again on the Moon, and we will put the first woman on the Moon. This is the right kind of #MeToo moment, and is an echo of the 1988 LaRouche nationally televised broadcast. “Woman on Mars.” There is now a new, fourth, Directorate at NASA. In addition to the directorates of the Aeronautics Research Mission, the Human Exploration & Operations Mission, and the Science Mission, there is now a Moon-Mars Directorate—an entire branch of NASA dedicated to developing and implementing this approach for the coming generations.

Current Thinking on the Approach

Besides emphasizing these points throughout the discussion, Bridenstine had a clarity and passion uncharacteristic of what one might expect. He presented a knowledge of various rocketry problems, using his experience as a top gun Navy pilot, to provide a working sense of the physical issues. Perhaps most importantly for various skeptics, he presented in detail the current approach to the national space program’s frontier project.

The SLS, or Space Launch System, which is a derivation of the Obama-cancelled Constellation Program’s Ares rocket and the most powerful rocket ever designed, will be the primary system the U.S.A. uses to begin the colonization of the Moon. To circumvent the delays which have occurred, Bridenstine detailed how the development process has been changed to a “crash program” of horizontal production, so that multiple steps of SLS rocket development can now be done simultaneously, rather than the time consuming vertical, bottom-up process.

Gateway to the Moon and Mars

Bridenstine then detailed some aspects of the Gateway project, much of which is still to be determined. In the LaRouche PAC’s April 5th webcast, Kesha Rogers discussed some of these aspects. Gateway, as currently conceived, will be a port in Cislunar orbit.

What it will eventually become is still under discussion, as is much of the process, except for the SLS rocket system and the Orion manned craft. The Gateway could evolve into a Cislunar space station. It may be entirely unnecessary for the moment.

Bridenstine presented the current idea, which is to develop a Gateway orbital docking port, where Orion, carrying four astronauts, will dock. From there, a pre-stationed descent craft—deployed and rendezvoused prior to the astronauts’ arrival—will be used to approach the lunar surface. Then a landing craft will be deployed, part of which will also be used to lift off from the Moon and return to the Gateway port.

None of these crafts have been finalized, yet all of it inspires the imagination. What’s the best approach? It’s not yet clear, but it is all damn exciting, and a great way to “get those damn plants open now” as President Trump recently said in a large campaign rally March 28 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The whole project—and Bridenstine himself—pulses with an energy and a clear sense of mission long unseen in this nation. It will require new ideas, will need to be constantly revised and updated as the process evolves, and will require the best of our nation’s scientists, engineers, and industry. It also requires the commitment of the American people, of whom 99% are kept in the dark by the fascist Fake News media, media which may be willing to cover aspects of the British role in the coup against our nation, but will never, ever, raise the specter of a mission of scientific optimism, exploration and development in their mainstream coverage.

This is our mission. As Lyndon LaRouche said in 1985, “For a period of perhaps the next twenty years, let us write ‘Moon-Mars-colonization mission-assignment’ wherever present custom would have us write the words ‘science’ and ‘technological progress’.”

Trump: End the Danger of Nuclear War

Just three days after Bridenstine held this unprecedented town hall meeting, President Trump presented his strategic view of the coming period while in a press conference in the Oval Office. Sitting next to Special Envoy Liu He of China, President Trump responded to a question on the potential benefits of the expected new trade deal between the United States and China, once again going off topic, saying “this may be going one step ahead,” but stage two, after this current deal is signed—which may happen before the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, or soon after—we should get together with Russia and China, end the dangers of nuclear war, and create a sustainable peace. He said this, literally as NATO leaders met in D.C. to spit fire and fury at Russia and China.

If one reads between the lines of such statements (if not the statement itself!) then the question of a LaRouche paradigm of a shared space exploration and colonization initiative, combined with global infrastructure platforms and development (Global BRI, World Land-Bridge), and a four-powers strategic alignment against the British Empire is seen to be more alive today than ever before.

During these last two weeks, since the Mueller assassination passed its last gas, we have seen President Trump first demand that the industrial plants of our nation open immediately; then launch the most extensive scientific mission of space exploration ever seen, and on an accelerated schedule; and finally, propose that once the largest trade deal ever created is signed by the United States and China, that we immediately move to use the trade deal as a platform for higher strategic discussions between the United States, Russia, and China, on ending nuclear war permanently, and creating lasting peace. Simply breathtaking!

This is not a fait accompli, as we are all aware that such viewpoints are not shared by leading policymakers and advisers. Yet, if we want it, it’s there for us to take. Or as they say in Texas, “Come and take it!” We must mobilize the American people as never before. The next 500 years of the LaRouche-era are within our grasp.