COLORADO SPRINGS — Winning the enthusiasm of the public and future engineers is critical to advancing the next space age, top aerospace executives said Thursday.
Space exploration has brought many innovations that affect everyday life, including communications, weather and navigation satellites, said Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.
“But we’ve stopped talking about it, and space is taken for granted by the average citizen,” Maguire said during a presentation at the closing of the 25th National Space Symposium at The Broadmoor. “Because we have been so successful, we’re at risk of being dismissed.”
While the human element sharply drives up the cost, sending people to explore space is an essential part of attracting interest and funds, creating relationships and tapping a basic human need, said Roger Krone, president of Boeing’s IDS Network and Space Systems.
Manned missions in the 1960s attracted many people to the field and led to big strides, said Jon Jones, president of Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems.
“We need to recapture the hearts and minds of our future professionals and inspire young people to pick us as a career,” Jones said.
The aerospace industry can attract “great people if we give them stimulating jobs,” said Mi chael Gass, chief executive of the United Launch Alliance, based in Centennial.
The next generation of aerospace workers has better tools coming in, Gass said, “and keeping them challenged will be the key.”
John Higginbotham, chief executive of Integral Systems Inc., expressed frustration with giving 70 percent of National Science Foundation STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) grants to foreign students.
“And under our immigration laws, we deport them within six months of graduation,” he said. “This is nuts, folks.”
Maguire painted three pictures of the future of space: a “golden age” of collaboration among the U.S. government, other countries and private industry; increasing conflict in space; and stagnation.
“We must discover what we really want,” Maguire said. “We must spend the time, affirm it and . . . ‘Make it so.’ ”
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
