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Turning Point

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When space systems engineer Douglas Mallette modestly subtitles his book Turning Point, "How Space Exploration & Development Will Determine the Rise or Fall of Humanity," he's throwing out a challenge. Then chapter by chapter, page by page, example by example he proceeds to describe how he believes this can happen.
This is no technical manual filled with complicated formulae or charts and graphs that would make sense only to other engineers or scientists. No, in fact, reading the book is just like sitting across the table from Doug and getting as excited as he is about the limitless possibilities of doing business in space.
But about the book. A quick trip through the table of contents shows us what to expect: why exploration is built into we humans, the "Three E's: Economics, Employment, and Education," (more about that later), energy and the environment, space policy, then on to the big argument about whether robots or humans are better for space exploration, a bit about current and future technology (most of which will be obsolete by the time you read this, but you already know that if you've done any year-end shopping this year) and finally "A Call to Action."
The chapter on "The Three E's" is the heart of Mallette's ideas about how we, mostly those of us here in the USA but the rest of the planet as well, can get ourselves through the calamities we now find ourselves in. Mallette shows that re-energizing the Space Industry (he puts this in capital letters) could put thousands of people to work not just as a short-term fix like the ten year Apollo moon program but as a continuing adventure lasting for generations as we travel outward from the incubator of Mother Earth. "All babies have to leave the cradle sooner or later," he says, "and now it is time for us to go." Employment leads to economic prosperity which encourages the young and not so young to get and continue their education. The promises of jobs and stable career opportunities are powerful incentives for education.
Mallette has an idea about how to put those auto workers and assembly lines back to work, too. In discussing the issue of "robots vs. humans" for extraterrestrial exploration, he spends some time describing what the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity have accomplished in the five years they have been crawling around on the Red Planet. He uses excerpts from the NASA Mars Rover website at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to detail the minute by minute activities of picking up a rock, scratching it, and dumping the scrapings in a pot for analysis. How far have they traveled in five years? Spirit: nearly 4.8 miles; Rover nearly 9.8 miles. A human astronaut could cover that in an hour or two, especially in the lower gravity of Mars, pick up a rock just out of curiosity, turn it over, pound on it, drop it or put it in a sack for further study, then hop on over to the next promising outcrop.
Now, he suggests, what if General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler were given the incentive (not just a bailout) to convert at least some of their production capacity to mass producing not two, but hundreds of robots that could be programmed for a variety of tasks, launched to Mars or wherever by mass produced rockets, thus multiplying not only the research capabilities but giving hundreds, perhaps thousands, of workers high paying jobs--well, you can see where this could lead.
So how do we get this done? Getting the message through to current and future politicians could be an insurmountable task, but Mallette is clear and unequivocal about that. Don't go to the politicians. Go to the people, the voters, and create pressure by the electorate that demands getting us out of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) where we have been stuck for fifty years, and reclaiming the US position of strong economical and scientific leadership in the world. His final chapter, "A Call to Action," lists a number of grassroots organizations dedicated to generating the enthusiasm and political pressure to make all this happen.
His final sentences sum up the challenge: "Humanity is at a turning point, and the choice is to look down or up. Which way shall you face?"
Review by:
G B Leatherwood, Senior Staff Writer, Space Future Journal. December 2009

Turning Point is a great book, easy to read, and with passionate and simple "not rocket science" language explains why we need to GO UP.

In a 2010 where NASA is closing the Shuttle program and a notorious lack of focus and strategy dominates the space industry, this book reinforces the idea of how important is to invest in space, the benefits that brings for the quality of life here on Earth, employment, technology, education, policy, spin-offs, and more.

Turning Point is a "must have" evangelizing book for everyone interested in space development and even more for those who are not aware yet of the importance of having a robust and focused space program.