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NASA's 'Journey To Mars' Initiative Might Be Delayed Due To Government Audit (natureworldnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Christian Science Monitor: NASA has taken bold steps toward crewed Mars exploration in recent years. But according to a new audit, the agency may be moving too hastily. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) expressed concerns this past week about the feasibility of NASA's Orion crew capsule and Space Launch System (SLS). In two government-requested audits, the GAO questioned NASA's ability to meet program deadlines, citing insufficient funding and internal management issues. According to the GAO, however, the agency's schedule just isn't realistic. By pushing for earlier launch dates, NASA is increasing the inherent risk of a deep space mission. NASA's budgeting practices are also scrutinized in GAO's audit. In September, the agency asked for $11.3 billion to prepare Orion for launch. "Ideally, if these programs go forward, NASA would be taking actions to reduce the risks we see now, which are being caused by management issues," says Cristina Chaplain, who led the GOA audit, in an interview with the Monitor. "They're going to face the technical issues no matter what. But they're exacerbating them with management concerns, like not having accurate cost estimates." The report adds: "NASA's 'Journey to Mars' initiative has been a source of both excitement and controversy. The Asteroid Redirect Mission, in which the agency will send four astronauts to redirect an asteroid into the moon's orbit, is slated to launch sometime in the next decade. The mission is designed to test new propulsion technology for future crewed Mars missions. In the 2030s, NASA hopes to send an Orion crew to the red planet. NASA plans to complete the first SLS launch in 2018. In the test mission, called Exploration Mission 1, the rocket will carry an empty Orion into orbit around the moon. In subsequent missions, SLS/Orion will launch with a full crew. NASA has scheduled Exploration Mission 2 for April 2023, but administrators hope to launch as early as 2021."
I expect an expensive audit.
Everything is unisex in space.
especially when you wear diapers.
Sig?
If this sort of nonsense had gone on during the Apollo program we would have never put anyone in orbit in an Gemini or Apollo capsule, much less made it to the moon.
Why is Snark Required?
The progress was delayed because of the lack of funding...... The audit only writes it down into paper.. The congress is directly responsable for the lack of funding and the need of such huge funding. GAO makes a great job and titles/articles like this are directed to slam their name into the trash...
I dearly hope this was sarcasm. Or irony.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Audit NASA, which has hardly any budget. Do not audit the Pentagon, where trillions disappear regularly.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
There is something NASA does very, very well. Deep space exploration. It is the premier organization on the planet for this, with by far the most impressive record. It is the only organization to send probes to the outer solar system. Something it started doing in the early 1970's) with Pioneer 10, the first Jupiter flyby. It operates the only Mars rovers. It has a better record at Mars landers than anyone else, by far. There have been a few brilliant successes by other organizations, but in terms of scale, it's very much "NASA", and then distantly, "everyone else" when it comes to solar system exploration.
There is something NASA does NOT do well. Space trucking. It could contract with SpaceX for heavy launch at under 5% of what it's going to spend doing so itself. It could contract with ULA, who are highly reliable and currently reducing their own costs, although still pricer than SpaceX. Rather than the US govt dictating that 5-segment SRBs must be used because those are providing jobs in this congressional district, they could simply approach SpaceX, say, "this is the capability we want", and save billions of dollars.
Let NASA do what it does better than anyone else in the world: deep space science. Get it out of the space-truck business, where it will never provide value for money. As it stands, SpaceX's own private effort to land humans on Mars is likely to beat NASA's on both budget and time, raising a lot of questions about just what happened.
The whole DoD budget for multiple years wouldn't permit "trillions" to disappear. The DoD gets audited constantly, you just aren't paying attention.
Lastly, when briefing Congress, the DoD uniformly briefs out issues of national survival, while NASA, however much you like it, is a "nice to have" cost center with no criticality.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Well maybe NASA wouldn't have internal management and budget issues if congress didn't keep using it to play political football with.
Is it any wonder that NASA hasn't done anything spectacular in the past several decades, with all the bullshit games that various senators play, whether it's trying to keep federal funds funneling into their state, or some anti-science moron forces NASA to be managed by conspiracy theorists?
Mars isn't going anywhere. There is no need to rush, just to say we got there.
What they should be spending money on is building a for real ship.
What is a "Ship"?
1. Long term and adequate power source...nuclear reactor of some kind.
2. Artificial gravity (no, not Star Trek, Centripetal Wheel living quarters).
3. Magnetic shielding
4. A non-chemical Power source.
5. Built to last...no one and done crap.
Accomplishing this alone will stimulate more technological development that a mission to mars would. And you would end up with something reusable, versatile and useful.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Set up a moonbase, use solar power to crack oxygen out of the regolith, and mine the ice in the polar craters. Now you have fuel AND metals. Use that to build a real, permanent orbital infrastructure.
Eventually, capture a small asteroid, mine enough of it out for installing life support, quarters, etc, and put it into a Mars Cycler orbit. Send it unmanned for a few cycles ( or mine/build several, and launch on trajectory every few months) to build up some infrastructure, or even just supplies in Mars Orbit. Maybe even put it on Phobos or Deimos.
Then, once you have habitat and supplies there (and perhaps a lander and ascent vehicle or three...), THEN send a manned mission.
Slow and steady will get you there AND back home. . .