Augustine Commission Membership Continues To Emerge

This may be an improper place to ask, but any word on when we'll have an address to send public comments to? I may have missed it if it was posted before. Thanks.

Leroy would be an excellent choice. Excellent mind and he is not going to take B.S. from people and what each concept can and can't do.

Danny Deger

This is a Great Choice! Chiao is a great communicator and human space flight advocate. I too would like to know if anyone has a contact to send comment to the group? We should have a chance to voice in this!!!

Carl

@Josh,

I was wondering the same thing. It would be a good idea to do so. They should also hire a few temporary people to dedicate their time to reviewing all the inputs, and consolidate it for the committee.

I hope he has been picked. He'd be a great addition to what looks like a pretty good panel overall.

This is likely the most interesting possible name floated yet.... Did you know he speaks Russian and Mandarin Chinese?

I think it is fascinating that Leroy is of Chinese descent and the only US astronaut present in 2007 when China held it's first International Manned Space Conference in Beijing.

See Leroy's Pro-China Engagement article for Discovery Magazine here:

http://dsc.discovery.com/space/my-take/china-space-leroy-chiao.html

I must admit that this is "Total Speculation" on my part but it seems to me that we are seeing a panel that is designed to provide direction towards a change to an INTERNATIONAL VISION FOR SPACE EXPLORATION.

I personally think this would provide a nice counter-balance to our Russian friends, further innovation and lead to faster better & cheaper advances (I know I know pick 2...).

Now if only they can get Dr. Alan Stern on this commision also........... :-)

Chiao brings a couple of interesting things to the table. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and has some deep perspective on space developments in the Far East. He has also done some work on strategies for protection from NEOs, and has expressed some interest in resource development on asteroids, perhaps led by humans.

He is a good public speaker, and a self-promoter to boot (which is not really a criticism).

It is ""Total Speculation" and not true and you are basing this on the selection of one person? Leroy Chiao is an American, his ethnicity has nothing to do with his selection to the board nor does it point to a direction of the board.

I would love to believe that his past experience with DOE at LLNL has something to do with his selection.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chiao.html