The Laughing Wolf

Some More Thoughts On The Commission

I was extremely glad I could make it yesterday, and I was pleased with much that was said there. Here are some thoughts and such to share:

Buzz Aldrin gave some good food for thought and was his usual tireless self. Even when I disagree with him, I respect him and what he does. While wedded to NASA and the current model, he is also up for a lot more commercial than currently takes place.

The economics panel went extremely well. The points that needed to be made were made and presented. At least some of the Commission members heard, listened, and understood. At least one of the members was obviously scared and/or horrified at the mere shadow of commercialism and profit, and that showed too. With luck, I will get to do some posts on some of the key issues raised next week.

The media panel was interesting, and well worth expanding in my book. Admittedly I am biased, but there were so many points raised that it was impossible to do them justice, on either side. The thing that interested me was that there was plenty of food for thought that needs to be chewed over here, by the Commission, by NASA, and by The Media, old and new. The one thing I did notice is that while two or more of us were blogging realtime, such was not apparently considered journalism by the staff. More than one mindset needs to be changed, and if things focus on the media that was, it will be the same as going back to Saturn Vs to enact the new vision.

The attendance was not nearly what I would have liked to see. Admittedly, it was a work day and all that, but this was a public forum/hearing for Citizens and to which Citizens had at least some chance in the drawing for making statements to the panel. As such, it was extremely disappointing.

Nor was the local Old Media much in attendance. I saw one reporter from AP, and that was about it. Maybe they covered things yesterday, but even the Commission members were commenting on the lack of local news coverage. Apparently, only the local Fox station had given any coverage to it that morning.

My other observations were all personal in nature. One member of the panel clearly loves to talk and/or hear themselves talk. Questions do not need to take five minutes to ask, especially when the actual question buried in the verbiage takes less than 30 seconds to state. I asked about one member, if they ever smiled. They reminded me much of a fire and brimstone preacher I knew in passing as a child, who perpetually glowered, knowing that somewhere, somehow, someone was having fun and they couldn’t stop it. This panel member had a similar expression and countenance, and in response to my query, the answer came back that they had not been seen to smile in the entire two days. I did get a brief semi-smile afterwards outside, when I passed them and wished them safe journeys, but very brief.

If you live in or near San Francisco or New York, you still have a chance to watch and maybe take part. I urge you to do so.

All in all, a productive and interesting day. What remains to be seen now, is what impact – if any – getting the message across about commercial space activities has on the panel.

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