Russia - Candidate Roles in the Exploration Vision

by James Oberg

Thursday, February 2, 2006 2:00 P.M. in the H.J.E. Reid Auditorium.

Abstract

Expanding human presence beyond Low Earth Orbit promises to be a technological challenge as great as the Apollo program and the International Space Station, requiring all the space-related resources and experience of Earth. Oberg will explore the potential contributions of the Russian space industry, based both on its experience with long-duration space stations and its own 'Space Race' projects for human flight to the Moon and Mars. He will also suggest 'lessons learned' in recent years about the delivered values of international partnerships (none of the promised benefits of such partnerships for ISS have materialized, but some surprising other benefits have), and will present a range of scenarios for different levels of hardware and operational integration over the coming 10 to 20 years.

Speaker

James Oberg, a retired 'rocket scientist', spent 22 years at Mission Control in Houston in support of space shuttle missions. He is also a writer with a dozen books and more than a thousand articles under his byline, and is currently the NBC News 'space consultant'. Aside from specializing in orbital rendezvous, he is widely recognized as an expert on Russian and Chinese space programs, and on assessing future trends in space. His most recent new project is in association with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he assists the 'Discovery Tours' project as tour leader of a program visiting top US and Russian space facilities. His home page address is: www.jamesoberg.com.