National Space Society

What is your organization aiming to accomplish?
The National Space Society is an educational, public interest, and advocacy group that is trying to serve all of humanity, even though it is based primarily in the United States. Our belief is that the Solar System which the Earth is part of must become part of our economic and cultural sphere of activity. Our top goals are planetary defense, space development and settlement. We also provide very strong support for space science that includes understanding Earth as a geologically active planet that supports the only known biosphere in the universe – so far. We have been pursuing these goals since the founding of our two parent organizations over 45 years ago. It is clear that extensive space development is needed before economical space settlement.
Space Development, which includes the ability of businesses to operate profitably in space, is probably one of the nearest term goals that will be realized. A major focus in this area is Space

The NSS’s main methods are though public advocacy and education. We make our members aware of the potential of space development, settlement and science, and also provide information to the General Public, the news media and the government. We also engage in citizen advocacy to members of Congress and the Senate. Private NSS members, often allied with other groups, contact Congressional offices and make trips to Washington at their own expense to brief Congressmen and their staff on space issues. Much of our advocacy work is done as a part of the Alliance for Space Development coalition of non-profits. We promote dialog between space experts at symposiums and conventions to further understanding of our goals.

The NSS has a system of chapters that began to be formed in 1975, at the time the L5 Society, one of our parent organizations, was created. There are chapters in many states and some in Europe, India and other countries. We normally hold an annual convention, the International Space Development Conference, which has been held every year since the first one in 1982 in Los Angeles, with presentations and panels by advocates and invited space experts from NASA, universities and private companies. The convention typically lasts 4 days, with normal attendance ranging from about 700 up to 1200. The ISDC has a number of focus tracks, award ceremonies, and student competitions. Hundreds of students from many countries come every year to participate in the various space settlement and SPS design contests. (No convention was held in 2020 due to the Covid virus, so we have held a number of virtual events in 2020.) The NSS publishes a quarterly magazine, “Ad Astra”, which covers progress in the space field as well as internal NSS activities.

To answer this requires taking the long view. We have been fighting to try to get the very high cost of access to space reduced since our organizations were founded. Multiple ways to do this were suggested, such as mass production of rockets, huge rockets, cheap dumb boosters, etc. By 1980 it was becoming clear that reusable rockets were a probable answer. NASA’s Space Shuttle attempted to address this vision, but failed for complex reasons. The seeds of a better approach came from the pioneering DC-X or Delta Clipper program. This program was a resounding success, but it was not followed up on. Instead, the government, (the only entity with the financial muscle to run such a program at that time), sponsored a new generation of expendable rockets.
However, the DC-X had succeeded in planting seeds of the idea in the minds of many people. Elon Musk and SpaceX have to significant degree made real the dream of a reusable rocket. More recently, the US government has finally begun some funding of Space Solar Power. The significance of Asteroid Defense is now well understood by the news, the entertainment media and even Congress, where support has been growing, exemplified by programs like NEOSM and DART. The idea of mining the lunar surface is about to be funded by NASA. Elon Musk seems on track to be sending the first StarShip vehicles to Mars by 2024, and may also participate in the NASA Artemis program.
All of these are goals that the NSS has supported for many decades. The NSS is now shifting its main advocacy effort away from just transport to Earth Orbit to a multitude of complex future space issues, many focused on supporting space development. Over the last four years we have achieved a high level of success in getting NASA, the Administration, and Congress to adopt our ideas about LEO commercialization and a gapless transition to future LEO space stations.
In addition, the NSS proudly points to its “Alumni”, many of our members who have risen to positions of importance in NASA and private industry. Lori Garver, once our executive Director, became NASA associate Administrator. George Whitesides, another of our Executive Directors, held the position of CEO of Virgin Galactic for over a decade. Dr. Greg Autry, one of our board members and our VP for Space Development, has been nominated by the President and Confirmed by a Senate Committee to be the chief financial officer for NASA. There are probably at least a dozen or more NSS members in the leadership of space companies. All of these people hold the same general views that our members do.