A Missed Opportunity for Polaris Dawn

Last week, I watched a news report about the Polaris Dawn spacewalk (er, EVA suit check). Now that the crew is safely back on terra firma, I thought I would address some issues raised by one of the journalists.

BACKGROUND

The CBS Mornings show is a major news show featuring three co-hosts, including Tony Dokoupil . On 12 September, one of the show’s special correspondents shared a story about the Polaris Dawn mission, specifically focused on the spacewalk.?

After the segment, the show’s two other co-hosts seemed as enthralled with the story as the correspondent who presented it, but Dokoupil was not impressed. He reacted in a way that should have been a perfect educational opportunity but for the fact that the correspondent and the other co-hosts were not prepared to do it. (link in first comment)

WHY HE WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT

Let’s start by acknowledging that Dokoupil was not just “being a jerk”, “trying to be annoying”, or simply “playing Devil’s Advocate”. We have to give him credit for bringing up some legitimate points and valid criticisms. Perhaps more importantly, he was voicing concerns that many folks in the general public share, so he is far from being the only naysayer.

Two points in particular stood out for me, and I was shouting to myself, “You are SO right! Even more than you know!”

First, he was absolutely right in pointing out that “we went to the Moon 60 years ago … we did a spacewalk”.?

After all, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov conducted the first human spacewalk in 1965, and NASA astronaut Ed White followed just three months later (and those were real “spacewalks”, not just a static EVA suit check like Polaris Dawn).

NASA even went on to land humans on the Moon, to conduct many more spacewalks in Low Earth Orbit, to build and operate the Space Shuttle, and to lead the largest engineering project in human history with the International Space Station.

More specifically, there have been over 260 spacewalks by people from 12 countries (not including the Apollo EVAs on the lunar surface).

With all of these accomplishments in the rear view mirror, Dokoupil was certainly justified in thinking it a bit mundane to celebrate what appears to be several steps backwards in our history of human spaceflight.

Second, he was absolutely right in pointing out that “this is basically an accounting change”.?

After all, this mission was widely lauded as a “commercial venture” funded by a single individual, consisting of an all-”civilian” crew, and conducted by a private company. As far as I know, neither NASA nor any other government entity used public taxpayer funds to directly bankroll Polaris Dawn.

And, of course, I loved his zinger, “call me when you get to Mars.”

WHY HE WAS ABSOLUTELY WRONG!

So, if Dokoupil was so right, then why do I think it would have been a perfect educational moment?

Well, because his observations painted only a tiny part of the overall picture. He was severely lacking proper context.

Yes, it is true that NASA (and representatives from many other countries) already did decades ago what Polaris Dawn did just last week.?

Now let us look at these events through a broader perspective.

Sadly, after the monumental achievement of landing humans on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth, NASA itself retreated back to Low Earth Orbit. Instead of building upon that solid foundation and carrying humanity further on to Mars, NASA scaled way back.

Why did NASA do that?

Many have blamed its leadership for lack of vision or conviction. Others blame all of the Presidents after Kennedy for not having his courage. Still others blame Congress for not continuing to properly fund the United States’ space initiatives.?

However, all of those are completely unfair accusations.

The bottom line is that the Apollo program was possible only because the US government feared Soviet supremacy in space so much that it was willing to devote an inordinate percentage of its federal budget (almost 4.5% at its peak in 1965-66) to ensure American “victory”. Once the perceived national security threat was eliminated in 1969, NASA was left only with “exploration and science” as a mission, and that has been historically funded at much lower–and arguably quite appropriate–levels (~0.4% of the federal budget in 2024).

Since 1972, NASA simply has not been able to afford doing anything nearly as ambitious as Apollo.

Dokoupil implied that he might be excited when we got to Mars, but clearly that will not happen with NASA leading the way unless there is another perceived national security threat that pushes Congress to increase the agency’s annual funding by at least an order of magnitude for a prolonged period of time.

If humanity is ever going to get to Mars in pursuit of “exploration and science” objectives, then it will be the private sector that will have to take the lead.

And this is another reason why Dokoupil was absolutely wrong.

Yes, Polaris Dawn could be seen as just a change in the ledger, with the mission funding coming from a different source. But … THIS WAS PRECISELY THE POINT!

Simply dismissing that as an inconsequential detail completely misses the point of why this was such a huge news story.

For the first time in human history, over the past two decades the private sector is starting to do things in space that previously only large national civil space agencies could afford to do. This is a MASSIVE turning point in our species’ journey into the cosmos. It CANNOT be overstated … and it certainly should not be dismissed.

ONE MORE THOUGHT

Even beyond these seismic paradigm shifts, the journalists only had to look at the Polaris Dawn “spacewalk” itself to notice why it was newsworthy: the suits they were testing were 21st century designs meant to replace the old NASA designs that were developed decades ago! I would be hard-pressed to name ANYTHING that we use today that was designed in the 1960s and has not been replaced or upgraded by 21st century innovations.

[NOTE: recognizing this serious problem, NASA is also partnering with Axiom Space to design new suits.]

Again, if Dokoupil expects he will get excited when we get to Mars, then last week he should have been excited that Polaris Dawn started testing the kinds of space suits that humans will need to get there.

(And, yes, the crew of Polaris Dawn also conducted many other valuable science and technology experiments during their wildly successful five-day mission–including flying higher into/beyond the Van Allen belt than anyone since Apollo and testing connectivity via the STARLINK constellation–but I feel like discussing those here would just be piling on.)

CONCLUSION

During the course of my twenty-year space career, I have witnessed far too many “space advocates” readily dismiss criticisms and concerns from naysayers. They simply cannot believe that anyone would not see the obvious value in what humanity is doing in space. It is too easy to say, “Well, they just don’t get it.”

To be clear: Tony Dokoupil made valid points and voiced legitimate concerns, even if he did so in pursuit of entertainment value.?

It is our duty as “space advocates” to properly address people like him with the same professionalism and respect we expect in return. Even then, they may not agree with us, but at least they may understand better what we are trying to do and why so many of us dedicate our lives to this grand endeavor.

MY OWN BELIEFS

Perhaps the best way to close this post may be to share three of my core beliefs.

I BELIEVE THAT:

1. NASA is doing the best it can within the financial constraints imposed upon it by Congress.

2. Other civil space agencies around the world are similarly pushing as hard as they can within their own governments’ limitations.

Because of this,

3. The future of humanity expanding into the cosmos will definitely rely on the private sector continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible in a variety of fields, including exploration, science, technology, medicine, and finance.

“Space is hard”, but we can do this!

#space #PolarisDawn #spacewalk #exploration #innovation #humanspaceflight