NASA Lunar/Mars Scientific Study (Space Exploration Initiative)

Goal: On July 20, 1989 President George H. W. Bush announced plans for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). On the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, Bush delivered a speech on the steps of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum calling for construction of the Space Station Freedom, sending humans back to the Moon, and ultimately sending astronauts to Mars. Following this announcement NASA Administrator Richard Truly initiated a study of the options to achieve the President’s goals, headed by Johnson Space Center Director Aaron Cohen. On 29 November 1989, Truly briefed the National Space Council’s Blue Ribbon Panel on the resulting “90-Day Study.”

Results: As the deputy proposal manager for SEI for a major aerospace giant, the Sphere Consulting Group, LLC Managing Principal was involved in the proposal management leadership, strategy analysis workshops, authoring, proposal development and management functions, win strategy planning development, and teaming with Martin Marietta, Boeing and General Dynamics Team scientists and engineers across the U.S.; for the submittal of technical, cost and management proposal to NASA Headquarters. The proposal was awarded to a competitor, McDonald Douglas, however the Team technical rating was "superior" in regard to the technical approach requirements.

Measurements: The study estimated SEI’s long-term cost at approximately 500 billion dollars, a truly staggering figure, even spread over 20 to 30 years. The Vice President asked the National Academy of Sciences to assess the scope and content of the NASA study, as well as alternative approaches and technology issues. Although the Academy largely concurred with the NASA study, White House and Congressional reaction to the NASA plan was hostile, primarily due to the cost estimate. NASA was repeatedly rebuffed in its efforts to gain Congressional support for the plan.

President Bush sought international partners, but the program was too expensive even for an international endeavor. In August 1990 President Bush established a Committee, headed by Norm Augustine, CEO for Martin Marietta Corporation, to make recommendations for the space program. Among the recommendations in the Augustine report, released on 17 December, 1990, was that NASA should focus on space and Earth science, while transitioning human exploration to a “go-as-you-pay” strategy. The President ordered NASA to implement these recommendations. Dan Goldin was brought in as the new NASA Administrator, and during his tenure near-term human exploration beyond Earth orbit was abandoned, and the “faster, better, cheaper” strategy was applied to space science robotic exploration. As a result, the Clinton Administration’s 1996 National Space Policy officially removed human exploration from the national agenda.