[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 34 (Thursday, March 16, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H1123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROTECTING THE CROWN JEWEL OF AMERICA'S SPACE PROGRAM
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, last week was one of extraordinary triumph
for the Nation's space program. On Thursday, NASA announced that the
Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs
that erupt in Yellowstone-Like geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. This
stunning announcement was followed the next day by the successful
orbital insertion of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter around the Red
Planet.
I stand before the House today to celebrate these incredible
technological achievements and wondrous scientific discoveries, but
most of all, to honor those who made it possible, the men and women of
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by the California Institute of
Technology, has designed, built and controlled many of America's most
successful unmanned space craft. JPL has pioneered our exploration of
space from Explorer 1, America's first satellite, to Ranger and
Surveyor craft that paved the way for Apollo to the Voyager spacecraft
that explore the outer planets and are still continuing to send back
data even as they leave our solar system.
JPL missions have increased our comprehension beyond anything even
contemplated half a century ago. Every American space probe that has
visited another body our solar system was managed by JPL. Through the
wonders of technology, we have circled Jupiter with Galileo, sampled a
comet with Stardust and rolled across the surface of Mars with spirit
and opportunity. Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn for just over
18 months, has transmitted stunning photographs and invaluable data on
Saturn and its moons, while the Mar's Reconnaissance Orbiter, which
will begin its science mission later this year, is expected to transmit
more information about Mars than all of our previous Mars missions
combined.
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JPL's spectacular missions have not only brought us incalculable
scientific data; they have also sustained American's interest in space
flight, especially the Mars missions.
Now, as NASA prepares to accelerate the development of the Crew
Exploration Vehicle and moves forward with plans to return humans to
the Moon, the space agency and Congress must take care to continue to
provide adequate resources to support the robotic exploration of space
that is JPL's specialty.
Over the past months, NASA has worked to put into place a
comprehensive program aimed at realizing the President's goal of
landing an American on Mars. This is an ambitious and worthy goal, but
the technological and physiological challenges, not to mention the
cost, mean that it may be decades before an American walks on the
Martian surface.
In the interim, we can continue to explore the Red Planet and our
neighbors with relatively inexpensive probes that are better equipped
than humans to survive the extreme hardship of long-duration space
travel.
Madam Speaker, as we consider the future of our space program, I urge
NASA and my colleagues not to deprive JPL, one of the crown jewels of
American science and technology, of adequate resources. The Mars
program is one of the centerpieces of JPL's focus and the lab has
several exciting missions planned for the next couple decades.
But even as JPL unlocks the secrets of our planetary neighbors, it is
poised to begin an ambitious search for habitable worlds around the
stars, a search that will help to answer one of humankind's oldest
questions: Are we alone in the universe?
SIM PlanetQuest scheduled for launch in the middle of the next decade
will precisely determine the distances to stars throughout our galaxy
and will probe nearby stars for Earth-sized planets. SIM will open a
window to a new world of discoveries.
The Mars program and SIM PlanetQuest are ambitious and resource-
intensive missions with long lead times. JPL has also been a leading
NASA center for the Explorer that in the past has offered opportunities
to carry out small and medium-sized missions that can be developed and
launched in a short timeframe.
The Explorer program engages academia, industry, NASA centers and
government labs in strong partnerships that provide young engineers,
scientists, and managers the opportunity to develop and gain valuable
experience on missions from inception to launch.
Unfortunately, as a result of budget cuts over the last few years,
this important program is quietly being phased out. But I believe that
we must consider the significant and damaging effect this will have on
NASA's scientific and technological program.
I am especially concerned about the recent decision to terminate the
NuSTAR mission before its interim confirmation review. This action will
have permanent damaging consequences as it is causing the scientific
community as well as industry to question the reliability of NASA as a
partner and the wisdom of investing internal resources in the proposal
development process.
The termination calls NASA's commitment to the peer review selection
process into serious question and illustrates, in my view, a lack of
appreciation of the serious investment made by the team at NASA to
date.
While I understand that NASA is facing difficult budgetary decisions,
the priorities must be set, it would be a severe blow to NASA science
to allow such a low-cost, productive, and unique program like Explorers
to be so severely cut. In particular the unprecedented action taken
with NuSTAR will have lasting consequences for all future competed
missions.
Madam Speaker, the decisions we make this year will have profound
implications for the future of America's space program. Even as we
celebrate JPL's most recent successes, I urge NASA and my colleagues to
work to ensure JPL's leadership in exploring our solar system and the
Universe beyond.
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