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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Nick Furhman

Aired January 11, 2004 - 09:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up this week, President Bush is expected to announce an ambitious new initiative on the future of manned space exploration. For more on the president's plans, we head to Crawford, Texas, now, and our Dana Bash. Good morning once again, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. And you know, it's been almost a year since the "Columbia" space shuttle tragedy; it's been a year since NASA, along with the White House, has been working on refocusing that agency's mission. And this coming week the president will lay out his vision for what's next in space.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): The first President Bush somewhat mockingly spoke of the vision thing, that Americans expect big ideas from their leaders. Next week, this President Bush's gaze will be towards the skies, with a proposal aides call central to the character of America, space exploration. Officials say the president's new decades-long space plan will return Americans to the moon for the first time in 30 years and establish a permanent presence on the moon which would work towards the first-ever manned mission to Mars.

REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (R), CALIFORNIA: Want something that's going to push our technology, push our capabilities, it's going to push us to the point that we're doing more than we can do today.

BASH: Government sources say Mr. Bush wants to resume space shuttle flights in the short term, but ultimately retire the fleet, in favor of new crew exploration vehicles designed to take astronauts to the moon, and ultimately to Mars.

ROBERT DALLEK, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: I think most of all, for this administration, it's a way to strike a kind of high-minded note in a political contest that we've already begun struggling over in 2004.

BASH: Bush officials downplay suggestions their hope is for a JFK moment in an election year, saying after the "Columbia" disaster, it was clear NASA needed to be refocused.

But with a half-trillion dollar budget deficit, the big question is how much will this cost? NASA's current budget is about $15 billion per year. Administration officials say the president will call on the agency to shift existing money to fit the new priorities and is expected to give NASA a 5 percent funding increase, more than most other government programs.

ROHRABACHER: It's all doable, and it won't break the bank if we're responsible.

BASH: But some experts say the long-term cost could be extraordinary. Democrats say the president should focus his energies on earth.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: I think that we have issues here at home that are more important than building a colony on the moon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: NASA wants to get back to the moon by 2018, but officials say the president will make clear that his ultimate goal, getting man to Mars, is several decades in the making. Heidi?

COLLINS: All right. Dana Bash, thanks so much for that this morning, live from Crawford, Texas.

We want to talk a little bit more about the president's new space initiative. Joining us now is an expert on exploration, space analyst Nick Furhman. He is live with us this morning from Madison, Wisconsin, where we, of course, hope you're keeping warm, sir. Thanks so much for being with us.

NICK FURHMAN, SPACE ANALYST: Good morning, Heidi.

COLLINS: Good morning to you. You know, in talking about this on Wednesday, we are waiting for President Bush to make this speech. He is reportedly going to recover a return to the moon within three decades, as we just heard from Dana Bash, a permanent moon base with research and development there, and also, ultimately, a manned mission to Mars. What are the benefits of these types of space exploration?

Well, the first benefit's very practical for NASA. NASA's needed to have an organizing principle and organizing goal. If you want to fix NASA, as the president certainly wants to do in the wake of the "Columbia" disaster, you have to say what's in it for NASA? What's in it for the astronauts? So by setting a high mark and goal out there, he has a lot of license, we hope, to work on NASA's internal problems, its management problems and so on. By setting a goal like this, there's a reward with all the pain that's going to come, I believe, in reorganizing and focusing NASA on a much higher mission.

COLLINS: Will it break the bank, though?

FURHMAN: You know, we've never seen the kinds of appropriation increases that the president is supposed to be asking for on Wednesday. After the first shuttle disaster, after the "Challenger," there were talk about 20 percent increases for NASA at a time when the Cold War had ended and there was a peace dividend. Of course, those increases never materialized, even at a time when defense spending was going down precipitously. Here we're asking for increases at NASA when the defense budget is not going down, and we have homeland security issues.

COLLINS: Let's talk a little bit also about what this does for technology. I know this is a very exciting announcement, as you say, for NASA and for other space exploration people, as yourself. Exciting, and it opens the door, doesn't it, for younger business types getting into this field of technology and exploration?

FURHMAN: Well, it's a huge draw, and it should be, for the country to have more children, you know, investing their time in math and science, and choosing careers that are high technology. Clearly, that's been one of the legacies of Apollo that brought us through the 1990s. I mean, the inertial force, the amount of energy that was created by the Apollo program really did generate the technology breakthroughs we saw through the '80s and '90s.

COLLINS: Some people would say, though, Mr. Fuhrman, that there is some unfinished business in space, particularly international space station. What would be your reaction to those critics?

FURHMAN: I know that part of the plan is going to be to make the space station become almost entirely focused on, you know, research and human survival in space. And so, you know, other science and other potential activity that you could have on the space station is going to fall to the wayside, just to the practical matter of how long can humans travel? You know, a trip to Mars is at least 300 days on the way out and perhaps longer depending on when you go. And we don't know how, really, without a space station, we don't know how long people can survive.

So one of the things that may happen here, if Congress takes the president's bid seriously, is they will let the space station really become an orbiting outpost and not the full research facility that was anticipated. And it will simply be working on how long and how safely you can keep people in zero gravity and in a dangerous environment.

COLLINS: We will certainly have to see how it all pans out. Space analyst Nick Furhman, we certainly appreciate your time this morning, coming to us live from Madison, Wisconsin.

FURHMAN: Thank you, Heidi.

COLLINS: Thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 11, 2004 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up this week, President Bush is expected to announce an ambitious new initiative on the future of manned space exploration. For more on the president's plans, we head to Crawford, Texas, now, and our Dana Bash. Good morning once again, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. And you know, it's been almost a year since the "Columbia" space shuttle tragedy; it's been a year since NASA, along with the White House, has been working on refocusing that agency's mission. And this coming week the president will lay out his vision for what's next in space.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): The first President Bush somewhat mockingly spoke of the vision thing, that Americans expect big ideas from their leaders. Next week, this President Bush's gaze will be towards the skies, with a proposal aides call central to the character of America, space exploration. Officials say the president's new decades-long space plan will return Americans to the moon for the first time in 30 years and establish a permanent presence on the moon which would work towards the first-ever manned mission to Mars.

REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (R), CALIFORNIA: Want something that's going to push our technology, push our capabilities, it's going to push us to the point that we're doing more than we can do today.

BASH: Government sources say Mr. Bush wants to resume space shuttle flights in the short term, but ultimately retire the fleet, in favor of new crew exploration vehicles designed to take astronauts to the moon, and ultimately to Mars.

ROBERT DALLEK, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: I think most of all, for this administration, it's a way to strike a kind of high-minded note in a political contest that we've already begun struggling over in 2004.

BASH: Bush officials downplay suggestions their hope is for a JFK moment in an election year, saying after the "Columbia" disaster, it was clear NASA needed to be refocused.

But with a half-trillion dollar budget deficit, the big question is how much will this cost? NASA's current budget is about $15 billion per year. Administration officials say the president will call on the agency to shift existing money to fit the new priorities and is expected to give NASA a 5 percent funding increase, more than most other government programs.

ROHRABACHER: It's all doable, and it won't break the bank if we're responsible.

BASH: But some experts say the long-term cost could be extraordinary. Democrats say the president should focus his energies on earth.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: I think that we have issues here at home that are more important than building a colony on the moon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: NASA wants to get back to the moon by 2018, but officials say the president will make clear that his ultimate goal, getting man to Mars, is several decades in the making. Heidi?

COLLINS: All right. Dana Bash, thanks so much for that this morning, live from Crawford, Texas.

We want to talk a little bit more about the president's new space initiative. Joining us now is an expert on exploration, space analyst Nick Furhman. He is live with us this morning from Madison, Wisconsin, where we, of course, hope you're keeping warm, sir. Thanks so much for being with us.

NICK FURHMAN, SPACE ANALYST: Good morning, Heidi.

COLLINS: Good morning to you. You know, in talking about this on Wednesday, we are waiting for President Bush to make this speech. He is reportedly going to recover a return to the moon within three decades, as we just heard from Dana Bash, a permanent moon base with research and development there, and also, ultimately, a manned mission to Mars. What are the benefits of these types of space exploration?

Well, the first benefit's very practical for NASA. NASA's needed to have an organizing principle and organizing goal. If you want to fix NASA, as the president certainly wants to do in the wake of the "Columbia" disaster, you have to say what's in it for NASA? What's in it for the astronauts? So by setting a high mark and goal out there, he has a lot of license, we hope, to work on NASA's internal problems, its management problems and so on. By setting a goal like this, there's a reward with all the pain that's going to come, I believe, in reorganizing and focusing NASA on a much higher mission.

COLLINS: Will it break the bank, though?

FURHMAN: You know, we've never seen the kinds of appropriation increases that the president is supposed to be asking for on Wednesday. After the first shuttle disaster, after the "Challenger," there were talk about 20 percent increases for NASA at a time when the Cold War had ended and there was a peace dividend. Of course, those increases never materialized, even at a time when defense spending was going down precipitously. Here we're asking for increases at NASA when the defense budget is not going down, and we have homeland security issues.

COLLINS: Let's talk a little bit also about what this does for technology. I know this is a very exciting announcement, as you say, for NASA and for other space exploration people, as yourself. Exciting, and it opens the door, doesn't it, for younger business types getting into this field of technology and exploration?

FURHMAN: Well, it's a huge draw, and it should be, for the country to have more children, you know, investing their time in math and science, and choosing careers that are high technology. Clearly, that's been one of the legacies of Apollo that brought us through the 1990s. I mean, the inertial force, the amount of energy that was created by the Apollo program really did generate the technology breakthroughs we saw through the '80s and '90s.

COLLINS: Some people would say, though, Mr. Fuhrman, that there is some unfinished business in space, particularly international space station. What would be your reaction to those critics?

FURHMAN: I know that part of the plan is going to be to make the space station become almost entirely focused on, you know, research and human survival in space. And so, you know, other science and other potential activity that you could have on the space station is going to fall to the wayside, just to the practical matter of how long can humans travel? You know, a trip to Mars is at least 300 days on the way out and perhaps longer depending on when you go. And we don't know how, really, without a space station, we don't know how long people can survive.

So one of the things that may happen here, if Congress takes the president's bid seriously, is they will let the space station really become an orbiting outpost and not the full research facility that was anticipated. And it will simply be working on how long and how safely you can keep people in zero gravity and in a dangerous environment.

COLLINS: We will certainly have to see how it all pans out. Space analyst Nick Furhman, we certainly appreciate your time this morning, coming to us live from Madison, Wisconsin.

FURHMAN: Thank you, Heidi.

COLLINS: Thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com