Howard McCurdy's Forum for Space Exploration
Public Policy for Innovation
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Promote Innovation • Advance Space Exploration • Provide Objective Advice
Our Work
Two Pi is a university-based initiative that examines government policies aimed at promoting innovation in space science and technology. Two Pi provides information and policy advice through objective analysis and research. These efforts result in the production of publicly-available papers that can be found on the 2Pi website. The site also features materials that assist in the teaching of science and technology policy.
01 Why do humans pursue space exploration?
Space Science
Humans pursue space exploration for five basic reasons. The first involves space science. Understanding how things work enlightens human understanding and contributes to technological innovation.
Credits: NASA
02 Why do humans pursue space exploration?
Defense
Humans pursue space exploration for five basic reasons. The first emphasizes science, and the second reason concerns national defense. In the United States, the federal government spends far more on defense related rockets, missiles, satellites, and associated space-age command and control systems than NASA spends on space science.
Credits: NASA Photo
03 Why do humans pursue space exploration?
Signaling
The third deals with what is called signaling. Signaling is a relatively intangible process by which individuals and their governments display their economic, technological, and scientific capabilities. It is akin to showing up at a high school reunion in an expensive sports car. The display has symbolic value.
Credits: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum
04 Why do humans pursue space exploration?
Commerce
The fourth is commerce. Science fiction and popular histories abound with stories about people who got rich exploiting the resources and opportunities available in what appear to be new and distant places. The stories help justify the widespread belief that outer space is becoming a significant outpost for new economic activity.
Credits: NASA Photo
05 Why do humans pursue space exploration?
Survival
The fifth is the survival of the species. Someday the sun will run out of fuel. Its mass will decline. With less gravity to hold it together, the size of our central star in the daytime sky will swell. As the sun’s luminosity increases, our planet’s oceans will disappear. Plant life will die away; animal life will follow. Any intelligent beings that have not long since moved to other destinations will cease to exist. Our ability to survive the alteration of the sun will depend upon our ability to move to other homes.
Credits: NASA Photo
06 Why do humans pursue space exploration?
Discovery
Credits: NASA Photo
07 Do the benefits of technology and innovation outweigh their associated dangers?
Technology in its various forms has conferred great benefits: power, wealth, knowledge, comfort, adventure, and through instruments like space travel, a glimpse of immortality. Few people living at the start of the twenty-first century would freely choose to return to the conditions present at the beginning of the twentieth...
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Megan Reiter (Rice University), with image processing by Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)
08 Do technological civilizations burn themselves out?
From sailing ships to spaceships, the products of technological innovation are easy to visualize. Yet so are the warnings of collapse. Imaginative individuals from Thomas Malthus to Peter Ward have visualized the ways in which collapse can occur. Basically, collapse may appear when the byproducts of change occur faster than the ability of a system to safely compensate for the initial change...
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, David Thilker (JHU)
How dangerous is space flight?
Human space flight is as dangerous as climbing Mt. Everest or undergoing open heart surgery. It is in many ways analogous to military combat. As of September 2023, 19 individuals had died in space flight accidents while going toward or crossing the Karman line. Record keepers estimate that 664 persons have flown into space. The statistical probability of suffering a fatal accident while on a space flight mission is 2.9 percent.
Credits: NASA Photo
How much did we really spend to go to the Moon?
The United States spent $20.6 billion preparing to go to the Moon the first time. The actual expeditions to and around the Moon (there were 9) cost $4.6 billion. Accurate accounting helps to establish an appropriate baseline for calculating the cost of future space missions, including a permanent return.
Credits: NASA Photo
How much would it cost to send humans to Mars?
Since the mid-20th century scholars and engineers have estimated the cost for humans to reach Mars. The estimates for this venture have ranged from as little as $2 billion to hundreds of billions of dollars. As of now, there is a growing consensus among experts that the price tag to get to the Red Planet sits around $500 billion.
Prepared by Dr. Howard McCurdy and Matthew Winchell
Credits: Howard McCurdy (2015)
NASA, SpaceX, safety and (Post) bureaucracy. Reinterrogating the past, challenging the present with H. McCurdy. by Le Coze, J. C. (2024) Safety Science
This article discusses the safety contribution of a public administration scholar specialised in space policy, Howard McCurdy. Its aim is twofold. First, it contends that McCurdy’s research on NASA and (post) bureaucracy has been overlooked in the field whereas it provides a valuable lens to the understanding of reliability, safety and performance of safety–critical systems. This contention requires bringing to the fore McCurdy’ extensive study of NASA and his rationale over several decades. Second, the article argues that McCurdy’s research brings novel and valuable insights to important safety debates.