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NASA Proposes Ending Voyager
darylb writes "NASA is proposing ending the 28-year old Voyager program, which costs a paltry $4mil per year to operate. One of the two Voyager probes is approaching the edge of what can be thought of as the sun's atmosphere (where the solar wind bumps up against interstellar wind), a place where no probe has gone before. Canceling this project means saving almost nothing compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars spent so far. The craft will be out of juice by 2015 in any case, so the marginal cost for the extra, invaluable, data would be minimal." From the article: "NASA officials said the possibility of cutting Voyager and several other long-running missions in the Earth-Sun Exploration Division arose in February, when the Bush administration proposed slashing the division's 2006 budget by nearly one-third -- from $75 million to $53 million."
AIN'T IT ALSO FUNNY when a person like you is so ignorant as to not realize that NASA has a better mission planned http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
You know whats even more funny, when a bunch of slashdot nerds try to throw in their own political agenda into what they say while trying to sound completely impartial. Your a bunch of idiots, a new and better probe is coming, Voyager isn't needed anymore.
"Nooooooo your going to kill pathfinder! but its done so much science!! bush adminstration = bad!!(hint 2 new landers called spirit and opportunity coming!)" --- Is what slashdot would be saying if bush was president 7 years ago(or however long ago pathfinder was)
No, Bush is the stupid one; his advisors are the evil ones.
And the real stupidity here is the manned moon-Mars missions, which have little scientific value and are a colossal waste of money.
This is mostly a stunt. NASA is saying "Ok, you want to cut our budget? Well here are the programs we are going to drop then." They are purposfully picking popular ones because they think that the fuss of "Bush is killing Voyager" will save their necks when push comes to shove.
Unfortunately, I doubt the nation cares anymore.
We've seen time and time again that without something like an active competition from a precived real threat, we could care less about expanding our scientific horizons unless we happen to know someone impacted by our lack of knowledge. And AFAIK, no one is claiming you can cure cancer by knowing what's beyond the solar system.
when the Bush administration proposed slashing the division's 2006 budget by nearly one-third -- from $75 million to $53 million." Yah they need more money to wage war on those terrirosts (freedom fighters) in the 51'st free state of America.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Let's just say it like it is. The reason the Bush administration wants to cut space exploration is because The U.S. president is a complete moron. George W. Bush is easily the least intellectually gifted president in U.S. history, and it surprises no one that he can't understand the most basic principles or benefits of pure science. Hell, he can't even pronounce "Nuclear" properly although my 8 year old can.
On the other hand, NERVA was considered to be possible and was canned over cost. We could do the necessary job with chemical rockets and that was good enough... But basically, the theory is that if you build a few of them to offset development costs somewhat, a fleet of reusable very heavy lift vehicles that can bring useful masses into orbit could be built and you could take them off from and land back in the middle of B.F. nowhere at the end of a serious (meaning solidly built) road in the middle of a wasteland, where they would be serviced.
Anyway smarter people than myself (I'm at least no dummy) think that it could work fairly reliably because it's a simple design, and that it would be sufficiently clean. And, it doesn't involve blowing stuff up.
I still think we should be expending as much effort as is useful on space elevator development. Right now that means materials science. However, you don't build this thing from the ground up. We need a fairly significant mass at the other end of the tether, and we have to be able to move the thing around, so you're talking about fairly serious facilities. We also want to be bringing approximately as much mass down as we are sending up, and in order to do that we need to be able to have something to bring down. To me that implies asteroid mining, which requires a lot of heavy equipment... Regardless, a very heavy lift vehicle is something of a mandatory step in any major space-related endeavor.
From what I understand, Orion's output involves a lot of EMP spread out all over the atmosphere. I imagine that might have somewhat severe repercussions where weather is concerned. Even the cleanest bombs available would be unacceptable for one reason or another, at least if you were planning to do it more than once.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I originally felt good that Bush would be a proponent of space and science.
Being a bit of a close follower of the career and loyalties of this man, I immediately saw his "proposal" for a Mars trip for what it was.
A plan to gut the science side of NASA, in order to accomplish the following:
1. Divert taxpayer funds AWAY from projects that are collecting data which proves Global Warming and other "liberal agenda" items. (not the least of which is the disproof of the "Flat Earth" theory).
2. Divert taxpayer funds instead to what will effectively be a massive pro-US PR campaign.
3. Divert taxpayer funds instead to what will effectively be a massive pork handout to companies located primarily in The South.
4. Be able to crow in 20 years that "Mars was a Republican Idea" (thus undoing all the credit Kennedy gets for The Moon). (same idea with Social Security privatization).
Since the "go to Mars" plan was announced, absolutely every single development that has taken place fully supports my above 4 points.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.