This week, with both the House and Senate in Washington, there is a moderately heavy hearing schedule. In the House we have two space related hearings, and a cybersecurity markup. The Senate continues to focus on confirming the Trump Administration’s nominations.
Space Hearings
On Tuesday, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on “Full Blast: Contrasting Momentum in the Space Mining Economy to the Terrestrial Mining Regulatory Morass.” No witness list is currently available.
There has not been much talk about mining in space (beyond water extraction on the Moon) of late, but an article published yesterday on SciMag.new, “Asteroids to Power the Future? Space Mining Revolution Begins” does take look at the current state of the technology. A pull quote from that article notes that: “Thanks to advancements in space technologies, asteroid mining is drawing closer to reality, promising not just novel possibilities for resource extraction but also a transformation of our energy future.”
On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on “Step by Step: The Artemis Program and NASA's Path to Human Exploration of the Moon, Mars, and Beyond”. The witness list includes:
Scott Pace, George Washington University, and
Dan Dumbacher, Purdue University
It is kind of late in the program, but serious questions are being raised about the cost and effectiveness of the current plan for getting back to the Moon. The cost overruns and delays in Artemis program are of little surprise to anyone familiar with government run technology programs. From a strictly financial point of view it would seem reasonable to scrap the current plan and to let a fixed cost contract to some private sector organization to provide flight services to the Lunar surface. Having said that, we now face the prospect of the Chinese landing on the Moon before we can get American astronaut’s back. And, then of course, there is Musk’s overriding interest in going to Mars instead of the Moon.
Cybersecurity Markup
On Wednesday the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a business meeting that will consider three pieces of legislation and their Oversight Plan for the 119th Congress. The legislation includes HR 1000, the Cyber PIVOTT Act.
An official text of that bill was published Friday; I will have a review of the bill here before the markup.
Nomination Hearings
The following nomination hearings will be held with the Nominees providing testimony:
Homeland Security - Troy Edgar to be Deputy Secretary of DHS,
Commerce - Steven Bradbury to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation,
The following committee votes will be held on nominations:
Homeland Security - Troy Edgar to be Deputy Secretary of DHS and Dan Bishop to be Deputy Director OMB,