Douglass also added one note of concern.
"We do not, however, feel your current budget will allow any significant progress on these high priority issues. We urge you, therefore, to request increased R&D [research and development] funding."
Resources and expertise
Bruce Mahone, director of Space Policy at AIA, told SPACE.com that, "at a time when our national security is at risk, it makes sense to marshal all our abilities as a nation to meet the threats we face."
Mahone said NASA has a wealth of resources and expertise that can assist the military, as well as intelligence and law enforcement communities. Possible examples include remote sensing skills and innovative computing capabilities, he said.
Furthermore, Mahone points to several human spaceflight advances that could be of great help to the military.
For one, reusable launch technologies may lead to a military space plane, Mahone said. Also, life support systems now used in space could have applications for use on Earth in hostile environments. Another example is miniaturized health monitoring systems, swallowed like a pill, in use to monitor the health of orbiting astronauts.
"These could have numerous applications in surveillance and intelligence collection," Mahone said.
Balancing act
Former NASA plans and policy chief Lori Garver agreed that NASAs technological prowess should be tapped.
"Now more than ever, NASA may focus on issues where their technology can make a contribution to national security," Garver said.
NASAs past work with the Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration can be strengthened in key areas, such as space transportation and aviation safety, Garver said.
Garver, now director of space programs at DFI International here, said that "although the nations space program must still balance scientific goals with technology development, U.S. space policy will likely focus on increased technology investment in the near term," she said.
NASA's high-tech skills are indeed a plus, said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor in the Department of Transnational Studies in the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The Department of Defense is looking at enhanced communications requirements, along with intelligence-gathering systems, including imagery, as well as "any and all kinds of sensors," Johnson-Freese said. "NASA has vast experience in developing exactly the kinds of technologies the military needs, and ought to be involved," she said.
"I would hope to see NASA making suggestions on its own about how the agency can help, rather than wait to be asked," Johnson-Freese said. "Innovation and creativity will be much needed and appreciated," she said.
Funding nosedive?
But as the nation swings into a full court press against global terrorism, and military budgets increase, could NASA wind up on the short end of the budgetary stick?
NASA could find itself in a funding nosedive, said Marshall Kaplan, in charge of Space Consulting Activities at Strategic Insight Ltd. of Arlington, Virginia.
"In recent years, NASAs mission and that of the Pentagon have found some common ground, but only a relatively small amount," Kaplan said. "Now that Pentagon money needs and priorities have come to the forefront of Americas attention, it is likely that NASAs budget will suffer for the next one to three years."
Any NASA budget decline, Kaplan said, would adversely impact such large price tag programs as the International Space Station, the space shuttle, and the Space Launch Initiative a multi-billion dollar effort to develop next generation launch vehicles. "High visibility programs, such as planetary probes, will probably not suffer significantly," he said.
Institutional threat
NASA is likely to benefit from any ramp-up in military funding in the short term. However, whether NASA maintains its relevance might be short-lived, said military space expert, Roger Handberg, professor and interim chair in the Department of Political Science at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
"The problem is that the agency becomes less relevant except in R&D function regarding hypersonic flight and possible reusable launch vehicles. But the question is whether NASA will control that," Handberg said.
A Presidential order and subsequent policies have prohibited and stalled military manned spaceflight, Handberg said. While not a prime priority, "the military may use the war footing as the mechanism for getting back into the manned spaceflight arena," he said.
If a major U.S. military push evolves to seize control over entry and use of outer space by other nations, however, NASA would be pushed into backseat status in terms of human spaceflight, Handberg said.
"For NASA, all of this becomes institutionally threatening since it implies that at some point the military may take control over human spaceflight by the United States, relegating NASA to space science and aviation development. That would lead to a budget decline that would significantly change the nature of the American space program," Handberg predicted.
Cooperate in new and unexpected ways
As the war on terrorism unfolds, innovative scientists at many NASA centers and laboratories along with the university and contractor community the civilian space agency works with -- could be helpful in overcoming technical challenges that will arise, said AIAs Mahone.
"We do not envision or desire to see NASA become a military or paramilitary organization," Mahone said. "We do, however, see the need for NASA to cooperate in new and unexpected ways with other branches of the federal government by sharing its expertise, facilities and problem-solving abilities."
"More R&D funding will be needed," he said, "for NASA to do so effectively."
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