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New Budget NASA Space Science Missions
pertinax18 writes "The New York Times is reporting that 'Some of the most highly promoted missions on NASA's scientific agenda would be postponed indefinitely or perhaps even canceled under the agency's new budget.' This looks to directly impact the types of missions that have been NASA's greatest successes like the Mars Rovers. 'Among the casualties in the budget, released last month, are efforts to look for habitable planets and perhaps life elsewhere in the galaxy, an investigation of the dark energy that seems to be ripping the universe apart, bringing a sample of Mars back to Earth and exploring for life under the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa'"
Well - the US is racking up huge bills in Iraq, with no end in sight, not to mention the enormous current account deficit, so I guess NASA gets hit with the cost-cutting.
And on a more serious note...
While Europa remains a high priority for science missions, NASA has been re-evaluating the JIMO mission and concepts that have been proposed for Europa landers, and the latest opinion is that the scope of these missions would make them too costly for the amount of information returned. Additionally, JIMO relies too heavily on technology still in development for Griffin's comfort.
Also released last month, if I remember right, another slashdot article talking about said budget. Sorry, but I'm too lazy and slashdot's search feature is too crappy for me to look it up.
Get rid of the bloody Space Shuttle!
Between the Space Shuttle's budget, stupid wars, and highways to nowhere, the US government should be able scrape together a few million for these important missions.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
And so Dickens was right.
We have long been hoping that someday people would go back to the moon for more than just the Apollo-style touch-and-go missions, and now that looks like a reality more than it ever has since the end of the Apollo program.
And yet, it is the worst of times, too, for those who have been working very, very hard on programs that have nothing to do with the lunar program which have been very productive. I can only hope that this will pass, and that once the new vehicles have been developed and are flying we will be able to resume other science programs -- and face it, despite the setbacks like the Polar Lander and the Climate Observer, there have been a great many successes in the NASA robotic programs. The HST, the MER program, Cassini, the Great Observatories, Landsat, the list just goes on and on.
The Shuttle was and is a great idea, but the execution was flawed due to too much pennypinching during the design phase. It is an amazing idea and I hope that a safer reincarnation of the same thing returns, from either a government or from a private company. Do it right (manned flyback booster, a hardier orbiter, and so on) and put a better escape system on it.
But until things get smoothed out again, all I can do is wait, and hope that it all works out in the end. I've been a space buff for years, and I probably will be forever, and I know that the new expendables will probably be more inexpensive to operate plus the processing flow will hopefully be smoother.
Until then, though, it is the season of light and the season of darkness.
i am a soviet space shuttle
At least someone is doing something:
Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, and 56 other senators have introduced a bill that would mandate a 10 percent increase per year in NASA's science budget from now through 2013, among other things.
More people ought to contact their representatives about NASA funding. Unfortunately space exploration doesn't seem to get as much press time as other "important" issues these days.
infested with jello like fishes no melotron wishes
Solution: Reduce the focus on having humans flying around like Buck Rogers until launch costs become reasonable.
Better solution: quit wasting money collecting fun facts about distant destinations we won't have the technology to visit for centuries, if ever, and concentrate our resources on local destinations that might actually yeild some practical use to us sometime before the 29th century.
In my book, they're setting their priorities exactly right.
Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
Uhura: Captain, I'm getting an urgent communique' from Starfleet HQ ... you know that 'five year mission' bit? ... ... ONE ... year ... mission ... to ... seek ... ... why?? .. have our orders. And you ha.. ... new life, new planets ... boldly going ...
Kirk: Put in on the main screen
Uhura: Aya
Commander: Jim...
Kirk: Commander Wilkes! What brings us the pleasure of your visit?
Commander: Jim, I have some bad news.
Kirk: Not another shippment of tribbles, heheh
Commander: Jim, this is serious. We're
Kirk: Yes
Commander: Well, we're going to have to cut it back to one
Kirk: What?
Commander: That's right - one year.
Kirk: (dramatic) Their
Commander: That give your 3 more months to clear up this planet destroyer thingy.
Kirk: But
Commander: It's the budget Jim. Starfleet's pretty strapped these days, what with the extra patrols in the Romulan sector
Kirk: I knew we never should have taken sides in their sectarian squabbling.
Commander: That doesn't matter. It's not for us to decide. We
Kirk: What about
Commander: It's "to boldy go" Jim. I know, we all feel as bad about it as you do. Prepare to wrap this up in 3 months. That's all.
Uhura: They've dropped connection, captain.
Kirk: Sulu, lay in a course for the Altairian sector
Spock: Captain, the plant destroyer is continuing toward the heavily populated...
Kirk: Nevermind that. If we've only got 3 months budget left we're going to the planet of the Altairian slave girls...
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Big ticket, no science programs like Bush II's 'man on mars' fantasy provide huge contracts to aerospace corporations that are big contributors. Programs that distribute a lot of small grants to thousands of scientists and graduate students don't produce contributions. Bush II has always been clear that job number one is taking care of the 'political base', and aerospace contractors have always been part of that.
Our government's policies are not consistent regarding science and technology, and both President Bush and Congress are to blame. Our lawmakers don't understand the human impact of their decisions regarding the budgets of agencies like NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Every time they re-allocate funds from one project to another, cut programs, or fail to increase the NASA and NSF budgets sufficiently to account for inflation, scientists and engineers lose their jobs. The U.S. government is shooting itself in the foot when it comes to our global competitiveness in science and technology.
According to this page, here are the science budgets for 2004-2006:
2004: $5,600M
2005 (est): $5,527M
2006 (est): $5,476M
That doesn't look like too big of a change. Does losing $50 million really do that much?