Coleman Web - Anthony Coleman’s Personal Website

I recently received a survey from the Planetary Society.

Planetary Society Space Priorities Survey:
Message to the next U.S. President

Help Keep Space Exploration Alive. We need every member’s voice and financial support right now to influence the next US president to lead Earth in exploring new worlds and understanding our own.

What should the driving goal of future space exploration be?

1. Building a permanent, human-occupied base on the Moon.
2. Sending human expeditions to Mars.
3. Using only robots to explore our solar system.

I believe that at this time and for the near future the most effective way of exploring space is with the use of robots. Compared to a manned mission they can carry out investigations and send information back to Earth at a fraction of the cost and risk of sending out a manned mission to do the job. In the long run I would support sending humans to Mars and further after the establishment of a launch pad in the way of a base on the moon and with it the experience and technology of doing such a thing would bring.

If you could advise the next president about the U.S. space program, what would you say?

1. Build the shuttle replacement, but do not commit to future human exploration beyond the Space Station.
2. Seek international cooperation for lunar landings and Mars exploration.
3. Build a U.S. lunar base as a stepping-stone to Mars.

For the near future I would suggest that we fully utalize the I.S.S. and get a reliable replacement for the space shuttle into play. I believe that international co-operation is the key for any future viable lunar activity and that any base set up should be international in nature, like the space station.

3. Scientists have warned that the world will soon lose its space-based ability to monitor climate. Should NASA step up its Earth Observing Program to meet this challenge?

1. Yes. Global warming and other Earth issues are paramount. Government space programs must find ways to fund this research.
2. No. Limited space funds are better spent exploring
3. Beyond Earth.

I think that one of the key benefits of our space faring ability is to see the Earth from above the atmosphere and to be able to take a wider perspective of things, literally. What is the point of exploring space if we don’t look back and take a look at home? An international approach is would be beneficial in order to finance and support research on Earth issues from space.

PETITION TO U.S.A. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

Your administration’s proposal to cut the budget for NASA’s Space Science and exploration programs will inflict long-term, possibly irreparable, harm to the future of space exploration.

Your own Vision for Space Exploration is being distorted. This budget, if passed, threatens to cancel decades of vital exploration, the very thing that gains the United States international respect and admiration. What’s more, in allowing NASA to alter its own mission statement to eliminate the phrase “to understand and protect the Earth,” your administration has discarded an absolutely essential component of the space program.

As a Member of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest and most respected space interest group, I urge you to take the lead in restoring vitality and innovation to space exploration and all of NASA’s crucial program areas. I urge you to fully fund space science and exploration at NASA and salvage its proud history of innovation and exploration in space — before it’s too late.

Anthony P. Coleman

Tomorrow sees the first day of the UN small arms confenence in New York. Control Arms campaigners will hand over the Million Faces petition to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN.

Here is an extract from the Control Arms Website detailing the petition:

Lack of controls on the arms trade is fuelling conflict, poverty and human rights abuses worldwide. Every government is responsible. The Control Arms campaign is asking governments to toughen up controls on the arms trade.

Add your face and join the million like me and demand a global arms trade treaty.

Details of the petition I have signed through Oxfam:

Dear Tony Blair

Your efforts at the G8 summit in 2005 to persuade world leaders to make poverty history, have alreasy provided millions of people in Zambia with free health care.

I want you to continue to honour your promises, and the next three months are critical.

• Please use your influence to drive a deal that will benefit poor countries, rather than just the EU’s self-interest, in current world trade talks,
• Please keep the preasure on decision-makers at the UN to introduce an international Arms Trade Treaty and tougher arm controls by the end of 2006.
• Please ensure that the World Bank, IMF, the G8, and rich contries make long-term commitments to make health and education available to everybody in poor countries.

I am just one of millions of others who want to see an end to poverty - and we are all relying on you to keep your word.

June 2006