O’Keefe optimistic about NASA’s future

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By Jonathan Specht

Although his job as LSU Chancellor keeps him busy, Sean O’Keefe hasn’t stopped keeping track of events at his previous organization, the NASA. In a recent interview, O’Keefe described his thoughts on NASA’s present and future.

In 2004, President Bush announced the first major change in direction for U.S. space policy since the ‘70s. According to the new plan, the space shuttle will be phased out, and NASA’s efforts will be re-focused on returning humans to the moon by 2018, building a lunar base and eventually landing on Mars.

When asked whether he supports NASA’s change in policy, Chancellor O’Keefe said, “Absolutely. Of course, I’m biased, since I helped to fashion that new direction.”

O’Keefe says that one of the biggest differences between going to the moon and going to Mars will be the length of the trip.

While getting to the moon would take a few days, according to O’Keefe, “Unless we can come up with a new propulsion technology, getting to Mars will basically be a year round trip.”

Because reaching Mars will take longer, new technology will have to be developed to deal with the effects on the human body of a long space journey, which O’Keefe says will be one of the biggest challenges NASA faces.

According to O’Keefe, “To get to Mars today would require the same technological leap that getting to the moon took in the ‘60s.”

Although China says it plans to land humans on the moon in about 10 years, O’Keefe isn’t worried by the idea of competition in space against China.

“In the Cold War Era, there was always the possibility that new space technology would threaten our very existence. That possibility isn’t really around today,” said O’Keefe.

O’Keefe says the U.S. can expect good news from NASA over the coming decades.

In his words, “It won’t quite have the same inspirational effect as the first lunar landing, but putting humans on Mars will certainly be inspiring for all of us.”

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Originally Published: Issue 593 - January 16, 2008

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