Commissioners conducted the last of a series of public hearings over the last month and plan to deliver a final set of recommendations to President Bush by June 2. The commission plans to unveil its report at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C.
"We've clearly set out not to go into a lot of detail, to make hundreds of recommendations," said Edward "Pete" Aldridge, Jr., chairman of the commission and a veteran of the aerospace industry. The commission, he added, will not design the next heavy-lift launch vehicle, crew exploration vehicle or outline the next eight lunar missions.
"We're not telling the president, 'Here's the recipe for baking this cake,'" Aldridge said.
But the commission will submit an outline describing the major hurdles facing NASA as it prepares to implement the President's vision. Since its first meeting in February, the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy has heard testimony from numerous experts with NASA, the aerospace industry, science community, military and media, to gather as information and insight on the challenges facing the space agency today.
"The goal that's been set is a really ambitious one," Aldridge said. "To complete the International Space Station, to go to the moon and prepare for Mars."
The highest priority is returning the space shuttle fleet to flight status, which NASA is already working toward. But other major challenges to the space vision include the need to sustain it through the 10 presidential administrations it may take to reach Mars, to develop and maintain the space industry and workforce necessary and to foster international cooperation beyond the International Space Station.
"Perhaps we have to revitalize the space council, which was at one time chaired by the vice president," said commission member Gen. Lester Lyles (ret.) of the U.S. Air Force during his closing remarks at the hearing. "That may very well may be one of the recommendations we make."
The White House National Space Council has been used by various presidents. It was last instituted by President George H. Bush to coordinate the government's role in space activities. The Clinton administration scrapped the council in the early 1990s.
During public deliberation, other commissioners highlighted the need to keep in mind the role that private industry will play in the space vision, as well as the need to keep the effort a national endeavor instead of just a NASA-oriented goal.
"If we don't do it, someone will," said Carleton Fiorina, who serves as chairwoman and CEO of Hewlett Packard in addition to sitting on the commission. "We're not exactly living in Sputnikbut someone will figure out how to send someone into space and commercialize it."
It is important, she added, that the U.S. work use the vision as a way of protecting its role as an economic and technology leader in the world.
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