And another thing...

It's a pretty good bet Alan Binder, Ph.D, the scientist responsible for the Lunar Prospector mission, won't be at Tuesday's Space Symposium either. He recently published a book highly critical of the "business as usual" stance of NASA administrators.
Here's a little story about that:

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-05p.html

Do you remember that mission? It was pretty exciting actually.
Here's a run down of its highlights:

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/lunar_prospector_000614.html


There's also an institute set-up to continue sifting through the data collected from the mission. You can visit it here:

http://www.lunar-research-institute.org/

If you are concerned about the future of space flight and exploration, as managed by NASA administrators, you should check this out. Read the guy's book. You can find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1928771319/qid=1112629289/sr=2-1/103-8694666-0696618?v=glance&s=books

What Binder is trying to show is that space missions, of any kind, have too long been left to the mysterious and secretive realm of NASA bureaucrats. He proves that private projects, free of the endless debate that often follows government sponsored space missions, can be much more cost effective. He throws around a number: He states he reduced the mission costs by a factor of 10. That means if it cost NASA $10 million, he could do it for $1 million.
Those of you with some business acumen know that's quite a feat.
It's too bad however, that instead of embracing this change, NASA resisted it and still resists it.
It reminds me of that old saying:
If you continue to do the same thing over and over again, you will continue to get what you have always gotten.
Business as usual.