NASA Budget Too Slim to Reach Moon by 2020, Panel Says

[n2doc]

By Tariq Malik
Managing Editor
posted: 13 August 2009
08:08 am ET
A White House panel charged with reviewing NASA's exploration plans has dropped any hope of sending astronauts directly to Mars and found the space agency's budget too slim to accomplish its goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020.

After more than six hours of public deliberation on Wednesday, the 10-member committee overseeing the Review for U.S. Human Space Flight Plans decided not to include a plan to send astronauts straight to Mars - called Mars Direct - on its list of options to be considered by President Barack Obama because of its daunting challenges and cost.

"We think Mars Direct is a mission that we're really not prepared to take on technically or financially, and it would likely not succeed," said the committee's chairman Norman Augustine, a former Lockheed Martin CEO, late Wednesday after the televised meeting in Washington, D.C. "I really want to emphasize that we're not giving up on Mars at all."

A manned Mars mission is the ultimate goal, but shifting all of NASA's focus on getting there as soon as possible is not feasible, he added.

The committee is expected to present its initial report to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and White House science adviser John Holdren on Friday and file a final version for President Obama's review by the end of the month.

http://www.space.com/news/090812-nasa-spaceflight-options-refined.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. That panel clearly defined what can't be done (everything).

We are too busy protecting oil fields to spend anything on that.

[Phoonzang]

2. I saw this...it's fucking depressing. The difference between robust

exploration and settlement of the Moon and eventually Mars is 3.5 billion dollars more a year. Just a measely 3.5 billion dollars. We spend several times that amount in Iraq every month.

Out of the 4 remaining scenarios, the one that is the least depressing is the "Deep Space" option where were explore near-earth asteroids, go to the Lagrange points, and do flyby's of the Moon, Mars and Venus.

I can't believe we can't pony up another 3 billion dollars. Hell, we could give them 6 billion, and we could be on Mars in the early 2020s. It's a freaking drop in the bucket, yet we're wasting all the water on things that don't advance science or human knowledge at all.

[bananas]

3. Need cash? Cut nuclear weapons budget

Need cash? Cut nuclear weapons budget
By Joseph Cirincione
December 3, 2008

PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama needs money. "To make the investments we need," he said last week, "we'll have to scour our federal budget, line by line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices, as well."

There is no better place to start than the nuclear weapons budget. He can cut obsolete programs and transfer tens of billions of dollars per year to pressing conventional military and domestic programs.

Transfers to domestic programs will help jumpstart the economy. Military spending provides some economic stimulus but not as much as targeted domestic spending. This is one reason Representative Barney Frank has called for a 25 percent reduction in military budgets that have exploded from $305 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $716 billion in fiscal year 2009, including the $12 billion spent every month for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

<snip>

We can safely reduce to 1,000 total weapons, as recommended by Senator John Kerry and other nuclear experts. That reduction would save over $20 billion a year, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

<snip>

[sofa king]

4. Are any of you surprised?

Bush was using NASA as a front for some secret project, or so it appeared the last time I studied their budget numbers (probably back in FY '06). My guess has always been it was Jerry Pournelle's "Rods From God," which would be an interesting and nonradioactive way to root out Osama bin Laden (just keep dumping kinetic energy weapons in the spot you think he's hiding until you hit the moho, if necessary).

Bush's old man pulled the same crap. Remember his Mars proposal in 1989? Then he spread out a couple of billion dollars among his aerospace consulting buddies and the proposal was never heard from again.