Open Letter: NASA needs to change

This is an open letter directed towards the Office of the Administrator of Nasa,

Their should not be any ambiguity of the primary goal of Nasa in the 21st century. That goal is to put humans on Mars, and jumpstart a new age of human deep space exploration. Nasa has accomplished incredible things that only a century ago would have seemed to be impossible. The idea of an affordable and common solution to deep travel is not nearly as much of a fantasy as the a trip to the Moon was in the years before the Moon Landings. The fact is that, most of the technology needed to make humanity a space-faring civilization already exists. It is simply a matter of accepting the challenge that stands between humanity and the distant planets. Unfortunately, despite the announcements of NASA that Mars exploration is indeed the goal of the program, I don't believe that Nasa currently has the correct philosophy when it comes to designing spacecraft.

Everyone in the aerospace industry is aware that the goals of SpaceX could be a complete game changer for the future of access to space. Their goal is reusability as the path to Mars. Elon Musk and other entrepreneurs have realized that rockets cannot continue to be a multi-year projects that cost billions of dollars, they must be a vehicle that can be flown and returned to earth safely for reuse. I understand that Nasa has considered reusability of rocket parts, but it is not beneficial to the current financial model of the agency. As a government agency, Nasa must serve a role that benefits the constituency of politicians which involves keeping long established aerospace-contractors employed within many states. Building single-use, multi-billion dollar rockets fits that model because it makes sub-contactors money. The problem is that this will not lead to new innovation in access to space. By maintaining the same facilities and technology's that were used in the shuttle era, Nasa is not looking toward the future. Im afraid that even if Nasa does accomplish a Mars landing, on the back of the SLS launcher, the program may be become irrelevant quickly.

I believe the solution is for NASA to make a preliminary Mars mission with the SLS, but quickly transition to a new model shortly thereafter which is capable of more than single missions at the expense of an expendable heavy lift launcher.