following Op-Ed appeared in the July 7, 2003 issue of Space
Building a Space Settlement
was 15 years ago that a little noticed bill was introduced in
Congress called the Space Settlement Act 1988. It seems appropriate
to review the history of this legislation in light of the activities
of the Space Settlement Summit, a promising new effort chaired by
Buzz Aldrin, Dennis Tito and Rick Tumlinson, which held its first
meeting in March.
offer this recap, lessons learned and some recommendations in the
hope that it will add value to the Summit’s deliberations.
was my distinction to conceive and draft the Space Settlement Act as
a staffer to the late visionary Rep. George E. Brown, Jr. (D-CA).
The House Science and Technology Committee eventually folded most of
the language of the Act into the NASA Authorization Bill of 1988,
which was signed into law (P.L. 100-685) by President Ronald Reagan.
In essence, the law declares that Congress believes space settlement
to be the ultimate result of human space flight and that human
expansion into space will enhances the common good.
it mandates that NASA prepare a comprehensive report every two years
reflecting an interdisciplinary review of all research relating to
settlement, such that Congress can measure the progress being made
toward the settlement goal.
providing NASA with a space settlement planning directive and
reporting requirement, it was reasoned that the agency would finally
have a clear sense of purpose that had been lacking since the heady
days of Apollo. In the years since the law was signed, however, NASA
has never referred to the code in its long-range planning and has
presented not a single mandated report to Congress. What was a
significant victory for the space movement upon enactment became an
abysmal failure of implementation.
happened with the Space Settlement Act is perhaps a textbook example
of how not to pass legislation. Leveraging the influence of
Rep. Brown and with the help of a small band of activists (Tumlinson
among them), this initiative went speedily from my word processor to
committee markup to the President’s desk. As a result, the measure
bypassed what every important piece of legislation should have
before introduction. It lacked a bona fide constituency from either
outside or inside the government. What I failed to appreciate at the
time was that the legislative process works best when it responds to
issues with a broad base of support.
its credit, the pro-settlement branch of the space community
organized quickly to provide timely support for the bill.
Unfortunately, after enactment, there never emerged a meaningful
effort to bring pressure to bear on NASA to adhere to the new law.
Even Congress had little interest in holding NASA accountable for
the reporting requirement.
for Mr. Brown’s office applying pressure, once I left the Hill and
politics in 1989 space settlement dropped off his list of
legislative priorities and no real follow-up was made.
the years, I have heard anecdotes of an eye-rolling Dan Goldin who
snickered when occasionally asked about the law. But Goldin is not
to blame. If there was no constituency to take this law seriously,
it is not surprising that NASA never did either.
my recommendation to the participants of the Space Settlement Summit
is that no new space settlement legislation be pursued until there
is developed a strongly committed and sufficiently large
constituency ready to take meaningful action when the time comes.
constituency building is no easy task. It will take a great deal of
effort to transform the hearts and minds of a large enough segment
of the population. It’s one thing to have an opinion poll majority
of Americans who supports the human space program. It is quite
another to rally a full-fledged global constituency behind the idea
that space settlement must occur in the soonest timeframe possible.
those of us in the pro-settlement contingent wish to build such a
constituency, it will require a level of resolve that we have yet to
renew and strengthen our resolve, I suggest that settlement
visionaries first step back and deeply reflect on why it is we are
so impassioned about human evolution into space. If we engage in
this inquiry sincerely, we will eventually come to a place within
ourselves that is the source of inspiration calling us to pursue the
settlement dream. From that place we will have access to all the
strength and wisdom we need to succeed in this all-important
mission. Also in this place, if we can get there, we will recognize
the awesome responsibility that is in our hands and that in this
effort we must not fail.
steeled by this internal inquiry, we are ready to consider how we
might transfer the intensity of this vision to others. We will
employ an array of reasons to make the case and win over hearts and
minds. We will conduct effective outreach efforts and convincing
behind every well thought out and statistically supportable argument
we will feel the primordial call, which is beyond reason, simply
demanding, “This must be done no matter what.”
have no doubt that the brain trust and resources engaged in the
Space Settlement Summit are sufficient to make space settlement a
reality within my children’s lifetime, if not my own.
will the Summit participants fully appreciate their own potential?
Will they pause to reflect on the depth of their own commitment and
take it to a new level? Will they take fearless actions to build a
World constituency for humanity’s movement into space? Will they
fully recognize the enormous responsibility embodied in their chosen
cause? For all our sake, I hope that they will.
In the end, our success will have
very little to do with legislative initiatives, and have everything
to do with our depth of understanding that the settlement of space
is a global imperative that can no longer be ignored.
Steven Wolfe is currently writing a book on the
spiritual dimension of humanity’s yearning for space.