Discussion Point: If you were Pres. Obama…

I would organize a world space development organization to govern a pooling of international funds to further space exploration and colonization, including Earth orbit activities that are non-corporate and non-military. Each country would report it’s missions in a 100% transparent fashion and would receive a 100% write off in monies invested into it, by a splintered department of the world bank. This space development fund would be simply added to the world economy. Any space lands or harvests of space commodities would pour directly back into this space fund. Any surplus would be split amongst all nations on a per capita basis and a continued declaration of space lands as “International territories” would continue, as would the demilitarized space law.

Okay, well, personally, I would have favored the ISS development into a megastation colony and spaceship docks as priority A, as far as manned missions and colonization go. Secondly, colonization of the moon. Thirdly, a pre-emptive colonization of Mars, with a manned Mission. Third with an option of Deimos/Phobos, first, being the easier way to go…  You know, I just am influenced like us all to be more internationally minded when it comes to space. Humanity needs better overall organization to achieve better efficiency, like anything else. Our leaders are responsible to their citizens to put their heads together and form international agreements on things like space. I really don’t see what the problem is. If modern day political differences between countries can’t be overlooked for the incredible and infinite hope that space development brings, then we aren’t going to get anywhere. So, the United States been and being the leader, it has the grand power and influence to be able to achieve such an international group and spearhead how it will be designed. Who better than Obama? Most popular politician in modern history, what. Pro-space people should be aware of that opportunity and help him forge the alliance. I believe half our chance of survival as a species lies in the colonization of space and the other half lies in creatively bolstering (not destroying) our ecosystems on Earth. So, yeah, I think it’s absolutely vital we become intrepid and aggressively proactive with space colonization. Where’s our human vision now, when we can’t see that and make it happen, and our behaviour is all primitive political battles over land and resources on Planet A. Maybe the pro-military or pro-religious zealotry or pro-corporate types of subgroups could up their STAR TREK viewing to our space enthusiast level? Might help. Something.. LOL

I would take every penny given to Federal-scale GSA-rated government bureaucrats and send it to viable private launch entities that can give true “bang for the buck.” I was a Federal Employee, for 20 years in the United States Navy and for 2 years working for the Veterans Administration, and I know the fraud, waste, and abuse that happens in the so-called “public sector” that doesn’t happen with the private sector. Getting into space is actually not really related to the glamour of the launch platform. In general, the first stage is intended just to clear the resistance – or dynamic pressures of the troposphere and stratosphere. The second stage is intended to take advantage of the lower gravity, lowered launch mass, and lowered resistance to accelerate to as quick a speed as possible. Because of the nature of the function behind these two stages, they are not important in size, and increased cost rarely translates into increased efficiency towards the one single goal – to get the altitude and speed thru controlled guidance and thrust to move something within 10 minutes or so between a launch pad and the status of being in space. I would certainly put as many funds as possible into the habitability of the spaceship, and given the expendiable nature of the launch catapult mechanism, go as cheaply as possible for what is effective and safe. These are actually exciting times, for the end of the NASA monopoly truly opens the floodgates for innovation through competition and the struggle towards success without the complacent and inherently uninventive nature of comfortable government jobs.

Antonio Gómez Mora

I would bring Paris Hilton to NASA! If she can get 1 mil $ just for showing up at a party, and few mil $ just for being the guest at the Opernball in Wien where all she did was to check her handy….then I guess she can also bring some good money for the future and evolution of humanity in this universe! And finally do something useful with her life ! And the next on the list would be Oprah Winfrey and Roman Abramovich.

John Sullivan

I would completely devolve it to the private sector. If there is to be a federal agency, I would mandate the use of the Orion Drive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) That, and the Vasimir drive.

I would have kept at least Ares I and Orion, if delaying the moon effort. After all, Ares I already passed a test. The idea behind using shuttle-derived technology was to be able to use off-the-shelf components to make access to space cheaper. And there’s advantages to using SRB, plus we keep the jobs, expertise and production lines. Also, despite all the goodwill and stuff, we don’t exactly live in an ideal world, at it makes sense to have a vehicle/rocket at hand to get to the ISS. China has no interest in space cooperation at this point and Russia can’t be forced to give NASA seats on their spacecraft if there’s some political rift again. If and when private industry steps up to the plate, then we’d see about phasing out Ares I. Orion I would keep longer, since it’s at this moment the only design going on for a beyond-LEO craft.

We must expand our species through the cosmos to other places of habitation immediately. Chemical rockets are not useful for this.

Build a ship.

Lloyd Behrendt

I would’ve done exactly what he has done.

To me, I could care less about whether there is money or not; for lack of money should never be a hindrance to doing great things; our destiny as a species is in space. For Gaia to reproduce, we humans must leave earth and go beyond. With that goal in mind, my top priority would be to return to the lunar poles, as a stepping stone to Mars. I’d be researching terraforming technologies for Mars. And I would pursue continual robotic exploration of our solar system. I would repeal NASAs attempt at sterlizing spacecraft, and instead would start to “seed” organics on other bodies in our solar system, to help the spread of life.

We could populate the Jovian system with Orion Drive powered craft – with hundreds of people and millions of tons of supplies.

I can no more imagine myself BEING Obama, than I can imagine myself a woman or a frog or a block of wood. But were I in the POSITION he’s in, I’d have gone with the “program of record,” and put [bleep-bleep]ing PEOPLE on the [bleep-bleep]ing MOON!!  The US fiscal situation is irrelevant to this, because NASA‘s annual funding is roughly equivalent to what the Capitol Building spends on removing hot air in one day. I urge everyone to read Homer Hickam’s comments on his FB Wall.