Slashdot Mirror
Mike Pence Tells NASA To Accelerate Human Missions To the Moon 'By Any Means Necessary' (theverge.com)
Today at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council, Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration is committed to sending humans back to the Moon by 2024, four years earlier than NASA's previous target of 2028. The Verge reports: Pence, speaking at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, noted that the administration will meet this goal "by any means necessary." He called on NASA to adopt new policies and argued that the space agency would need to embrace "a new mindset that begins with setting bold goals and staying on schedule." To do that, he said the administration may consider ditching some of NASA's current contractors -- which are currently developing new vehicles to take humans into deep space -- and using commercially developed rockets instead. "If commercial rockets are the only way to get American astronauts to the Moon in the next five years, then commercial rockets it will be," said Pence. "Urgency must be our watch word."
However, Pence offered few clear recommendations and changes that would help to accelerate NASA's return, apart from potentially switching rockets and contractors. "It was rhetoric about 'by all means possible' and 'we'll provide the resources necessary' and 'leadership is essential,'" John Logsdon, a space policy expert at George Washington University, tells The Verge. "I mean, they're all good words. But the devil's in the details."
However, Pence offered few clear recommendations and changes that would help to accelerate NASA's return, apart from potentially switching rockets and contractors. "It was rhetoric about 'by all means possible' and 'we'll provide the resources necessary' and 'leadership is essential,'" John Logsdon, a space policy expert at George Washington University, tells The Verge. "I mean, they're all good words. But the devil's in the details."
Setting bold goals and staying on schedule.
So I guess, they sacrifice safety.
coming from a bible thumping moron that doesn't believe in evolution or science...
does he expect to find some gourmet cheese up there or something?
Ah, very good then
And the dish ran away with the spoon...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
NASA director reads the memo again:
by any means necessary
Hrmmm, clickety clickety clickety...Wall funds diverted to NASA!
All the cool leaders are dictating these days
Yes, show me how its all going to be paid for, and most of it will be contracted out.
I'm all for going to Mars and sending someone there.
Pushing people to develop new technologies or think differently will help drive innovation.
But don't cut current programs and funding just because someone wants to get to Mars in their term.
Hmm... Get there faster with private rocketry. Possibly cut corners. No time to figure out some sort of science goal.
Yeah someone just got a fat campaign donation I suspect....
By any chance, is there a "christian" prophecy which includes human presence on the moon?
Mars^H^H^HMoon^H^H^H^HMars^H^H^HMoon
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Not because it is hard, but because we think it sounds easy. And will look good.
Because the real service we offer, is to allow the crueler half of a large generation empty remembrances of what they used to like the idea of, as we strip of it of meaning.
I've been to science/media conventions where folks in upper-level NASA positions (often conservatives) speak frankly on these subjects, along with a lot of engineer coworkers that spent time on the - none of this lines up at all with anything they'd want.
Ryan Fenton
Why the sudden hold on not going to the moon?
Decades and no new human moon mission?
Getting to the moon and returning was not beyond German and US tech in the 1960-70's?
Get back to the moon.
A big new Lunar Flag Assembly ready for 8K TV.
Place another US flag on the moon and do the salutes.
Collect some moon rocks.
Place some experiments.
Mars next.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Let's just pray them to the moon! They'll go with our thoughts and prayers! It'll just work, 'cause God, right? Right?
Sorry about the wing. We cut that from the budget to pay for tax breaks for big oil companies' fracking.
AC
That means two things, neither of which is going to happen:
- Increased risk, including a likelihood of deaths.
- Reducing Congressional oversight, so they can't micromanage NASA's budget and force NASA to hand out pork to the "right" Congressional districts.
Realistically, it would probably also require a third thing: firing the NASA bureaucracy that has grown up in service of Pournelle's Iron Law.
So, no. Not going to happen. NASA as it exists today is not capable of doing this job.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
n/t
Are we still in the mindset of the space race too ?
- give us more money. Give us half of the budget allocated to the military. Give us half of their seven hundred dollar toilet seats and three hundred dollar spanners.
computers process information
they don't move mass
according to you
world war ii didn't happen either
we had horseback soldiers in 1939
and we were supposed to have radar, jet planes, voice encryption and nuclear weapons in 6 years without computers
sure
Worry about getting back later.
"Urgency must be our watch word."
Why? Is it going somewhere?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Just point Mike to the local discount mall. That is where old tech goes to die, maybe he can get a twelve pak and have a lawn party. Mike apparently thinks the NASA head had a secret lunar lander mission just waiting all ready to go in his back pocket. He just knew some desperate politician would have a brain fart one day and drop this dingelberry on his desk, to pull his bacon out of the fire with this slick trick.
I'm sorry to tell you I just can't get our stupid engineers to agree your much better timeline. However, the good news is I'm sure your unprecedented support by the American people will force congress and the states to amend the Constitution to make you president for life before the end of your second term. Then you will get the credit your deserve for taking mankind back to the moon. We will use the moon base to launch missions to Mars and there is no question in anyone's mind that the first city on Mars will be named "Trump City". In fact it won't just be the first city. It will be the capital city on Mars for millions of years. Humanity will spread to the stars from Mars and so will your name. Just as New York became grander than the city of York in England. I'm sure New Trump will be an even more grand city when we find suitable planets outside our solar system to colonize.
All the management here at NASA appreciates your support and allowing us to spread your name among the stars.
Jim
Head of NASA
I'm not sure what "any means necessary means". Does NASA get a blank check from the government? If Elon says for 10 trillion he can get us to the moon earlier, they'll fund it? If it involves paying large sums to Russia of China, that's ok too? How about safety? Send 10 rockets, as long as one makes it there that's fine, even if 9 crash and burn? Who exactly decides what means are necessary?
Try a rocket, I hear that's the best way way to accelerate moon missions. Or any kind really.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
A hunchMany folks will pitch in time and money. Trump would develop bone spurs aggravated by no gravity and Pence would claim not able to be alone with another person coz well ...
Yeah, it's a priority, you know how much live that will safe/improve!!! Think about the children!
Well, Mr. Vice President, back when we used to build things like moon rockets and particle accelerators, we had this little thing called "cost plus"...
If it really is by any means necessary, does that mean the catapult option is back on the table?
They do have a large supply of Monkeys.
Ever since most of the original paperclip crew died, Nasa is now run by "Real Americans", and not the paperclip scientists.
Yes, the "best and brightest", cutting corners to send the money volunteers to their doom.
The Germans got Man to the moon, the US provided Money and trained Monkeys.
so yuge you can see it even it is on the moon
We have millions of Americans who still cannot afford to go to the doctor, who cannot afford education, who cannot afford housing, and this asshat thinks we need to send people to the moon to do what, exactly?
I don't respond to AC's.
Why is Pence so hot to get to the moon asap? What could possibly be scheduled for 2024 that the vice president would want some great publicity for?
Let private industry go to the moon, and keep NASA's focus on civilization scale science. NASA will still need human space capability, but if industry is finally up to accepting and managing cost and risk on its own, so be it.
He did say by any means possible!
That's right, Mike Pence, the young Earth creationist, wants us to go to the Moon by 2024. This is a man who doesn't understand science or history of us getting to the Moon. He doesn't understand money either because NASA had 5% of the budget at that time. Currently NASA has what, half a percent of the budget?
Place something witty here
60 years ago we allegedly went to the Moon
And AC is allegedly intelligent. But then he says shit like this. Sure. Get off this site, you're no nerd.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
The "Space Shuttle Challenge" - the latest teenaged fad to blow up on social media!
We know they're idiots, so let's have them do something that would actually benefit mankind, they can be test dummies for NASA's new "Trebuchet to the Moon" mission.
Not sure how many test cycles will be needed, but I know they're dumb enough to last through all of them.
We have to get to the moon now because ... China!
Currently NASA has what, half a percent of the budget?
Oh please. NASA had a bigger piece of a much, MUCH smaller pie. I'm all for increasing their budget but please have some perspective.
Just remember that, as in the case of the chief executive's personal life, all Trump administration commitments are short-lived.
Even in constant 2014 dollars, the current NASA budget is barely a third of what it was at its height — and since Space Has Really Become A Thing since then, what with the space stations and satellites and such, NASA tasked with doing a lot more missions than in the heady days of '66.
We want to get back to the moon in 5 years when we don't have human rated launch capability? And we want to do it on a giant rocket that hasn't launched once yet? Fine, but they're gonna need to open the pocketbooks a hell of a lot more than they are now.
... is getting their resumes ready. Tell engineers to sign off on stupid and they won't and keep asking an they will leave. When Nasa engineers leave, subject matter experts for something very niche are gone forever.
I think I saw it in a movie somewhere. So it must be doable.
Yet Elon is doing more with less. Elon is making NASA look bad. Scratch that NASA is making NASA look bad.
There will always be people in need. Does that mean everything else must stop? How do you think things advance? Which part of the population should be executed to make "more" for those in need? Are you volunteering to off yourself? You can grow the pie or cull the herd. Space exploration is an attempt to "Grow the Pie".
We don't want any of the space races here. They're all drug smuggling rapist illegal aliens.
classic GOP, wanting to go back to the past. We did that 50 years ago, and in the intervening years we've developed extremely effective unmanned missions that have given us huge insights and great successes. Manned spaceflight is romantic but wildly expensive and rarely worth it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Show me the Money!
yep. In politican that want NASA to go to the moon or Mars that isn't also arguing for NASA funding to be 4% of the budget is just wasting words.
to Trump's vanity. He has no vision. Everything he does is looking backwards. Bring back coal, go to the moon; what's next, fly a hot air balloon around the world?
Even if we go back to the moon, will Trump supporters believe we did it?
The speed at which NASA gets things done depends upon how deeply they are funded. Since funds come from the US government they have power over the progress of NASA. They have cut funding deeply and left NASA in a hole for a couple of decades. Now, due to Trump's insanity the tax revenues for the US will decline. Obviously when firms like Harley Davidson and Ford effectively leave the US all together the hand writing is on the wall. Trump's trade policies were stated as the reason Harley was leaving the US.
Does this mean there will be adequate funding and an absence of political meddling?
~Any apparent grammatical or typographic errors are caused by defects in your display device.
Where's the line in the Malignanat Carcinoma's federal budget for next year where NASA gets a 100% increase, from $20B to $40B?
Oh, I see, like any sleazy CEO, do more with less!!!
Datum: At the height of the Moon Race, in the sixties, NASA's budget was also $20B... in 1965 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $180B or $200B now.
Anyone who wants more in space... without increasing the budget is a liar.
Because of budget and will that why we haven't been back. Also we went there more then once, and the ships and radio was tracked around the world.
Plus footage, and the fact we have shit on the moon.
Go back to your bigfoot/flat earth/ anti vaxx facebook page and stay away from here.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
Mystery Red of the Great American Eclipse
It has blood on it!
ABCNews: Eclipse makes pendulum wander
Sound of Silence
Sun researchers find strange eclipse reading
It just means they have to pay a little more to get bumped up on the SpaceX launch schedule for the BFR.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
https://www.politifact.com/facebook-fact-checks/statements/2018/dec/13/blog-posting/no-nancy-pelosis-home-doesnt-sit-behind-high-wall/
Don't you fucking #MAGAtards even do the slightest bit of fact-checking, or are you really just that stupid?
And don't try to claim Obama has one either.
We have millions of Americans who still cannot afford to go to the doctor, who cannot afford education, who cannot afford housing, and this asshat thinks we need to send people to the moon to do what, exactly?
Nobody has mentioned the actual reason for the urgency. It is to elect Mike Pence.
He is hoping that he will be able to run in part on sending people to the moon. The current timeline makes it more likely that it will happen when a Democrat is president, and if he speeds it up it will be easier for him to take credit for it when he is making a presidential bid.
Trump's proposed budget contains CUTS to NASA funding! I've never seen an administration that contradicted themselves so much!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Elon Musk, SpaceX, along with funding/help from NASA COTS, NASA CCXDev, and DoD/Intel World have created the lowest cost launch system. The F9/FH is good enough to get us into LEO,and to send small cargos to the moon.
However, we need space stations, lunar stations, multiple landing capabilities, etc. And these have to be inexpensive as well.
TO make this happen, we need NASA to help companies like Axiom along with Bigelow. But simply getting them up there, will not make them inexpensive. They need multiple customers in them. That means letting other nations make use of this private railroad. The Middle East. Northern Europe. Brazil. India. South Korea. Etc. We should allow them to train/experiment on this system, while we get to the moon.
NASA/Trump/CONgress can make this happen.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The last three administrations made promises to return to the moon and I knew all three were bullshit. And they all got trimmed down and eventually went away as I suspected.
After 50 years, I would think they would have the safety thing down by now, and they should have all the required technology on the shelf.
Trump eats a lot of hamberders, we know this. I suggest that he is at least 80% beef fat as a result.
If we loaded Trump into a SRB as a fuel pellet, I'll bet we could save all kinds of time and money! With the bonus that we are cleaning up the planet besides.
Pence said by any means necessary. I think this is necessary!
Sorry, I can't help thinking it'll go something like, "Hey kid. Wanna puppy? He's right in there, through that little door."
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I hate the moon now! And I hate science and space!
Why do humans have to destroy anything that is natural. The moon should be declared a public sanctuary to the world. Why deface it?? It has looked like it has for hundred of thousand years.
This was all so Trump had something to watch on TV. Unless the Fox shows stay on it this is the last we'll hear of it. The GOP is a party babysitting a temperamental diaper flinging figurehead so they can get more tax cuts and environmental regulation rollbacks. If they pay a brutal price for it then the Republic is working as planned. If, when the tide turns, the corporate friendly socially liberal managed corruption era returns then the republic is working as planned.
I'm wondering if it's possible for any government to go to the moon anymore.
I mean, I know it's *technically* possible, but I suspect the design and deploy process is so messed up that any such attempt will inevitably go over budget and get canceled.
The sixties were a special time -- the US had the cash, and the process hadn't been corrupted yet. Or corrupted enough yet.
Perhaps a private company could manage it. But it probably wouldn't be a single stack ground-to-Luna solution like the Saturn V, as magnificent as that was.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
...but wtf'ing hurry?
Risk taking, dream chasing, gung-ho American drive. Where have you gone? Sit on the couch, play video games, let the other guys do the dangerous stuff. Why should actual biological beings walk on the moon or go to dry, oh-so-uncomfortable Mars? Don't we have robots or rovers for that? Haven't we learned our lessons about doing, you know, dangerous stuff? Don't we need another 5 year study on o-rings? America wasn't founded on 5 year studies of o-rings. The aviation industry was built on the backs of daring, living beings who were absolutely aware of the risks. We don't give meaning to past sacrifices by funding a NASA that's a bureaucratic sinkhole.
There's an accompanying miasma of responsibility aversion as well. "It's not my fault. I didn't do it." Just as Congress has ceded its responsibility for war to the Executive Branch, we, as a nation, have adopted a cautious vision of . . . what? What is our vision today? More martian rovers? Digging 6 inch holes for samples?
Can we go to the moon in 5 years? Sure we can. We did it in 1969 - 50 years ago. At the rate we're going we'd still be waiting for approval on the sale of Cessnas. My grandfather tested planes that would be grounded today. My mother was flying at 15. How do you say Captain Kirk in Chinese?
He also commented, "Mike Pence was my slave name, I now prefer Malcolm SpaceX."
Just send an AI that identifies as a human.
NASA can run something really far up Pence's "moon". It'll be within budget AND fulfill the "by any means necessary" requirement. They just have to redefine which "moon" Pence is referring to.
Don't forget that Mike Pence is saying this while the administration is pushing for steep cuts to NASA's already tiny budget over this same time frame, Boeing is the prime SLS contractor, which Pence is keeping, and Boeing was saying at least 4 more years than this. So what is the chance this rocket will experience a sensor malfunction and plunge uncontrollably back to Earth, killing everyone on board?
You know that slashdot is starting to fall pray to the inanity of mainstream media when this utterly meaningless piece actually makes it past the moderators. Pence can say whatever he wants. Absent the requisite resources--i.e., MONEY, FUNDING, APPROPRIATIONS, etc.--NASA cannot do squat. Hence, by "by any means possible" Pence apparently means "without any additional funding" because he certainly didn't say that the US government intends to fund such a mission. This is the sort of bullsh*t with which the Trump administration covers up their attempts to kill all of NASA's environmental missions, like the Orbiting Carbon Observatory. Maybe scientists and engineers are politically naive, after all. Really disappointed, guys.
"...who search the reason of things
Are those who bring the most sorrow on themselves." --Euripides, The Medea
Refocus NASA to be more accountable by accomplishing a major mission before the likely end of the President's term.
This requires being able to define a mission to finish and get funding, and execute without major delays and overruns.
A tall order for anybody but especially so for a career focused agency.
The funding part may seem to be outside NASA's control, but some prerequsites are.
1) Choosing a mission that logically fits in as a stepping stone towards NASA's purpose. (To get us further and further into space by making it no big deal.)
2) Choosing a mission that seems a good balance between ability to execute and progress on the purpose. (Repeating what we they did 50 years ago seems a bit lite in this area, but if that is where this generation of NASA is, we have to start somewhere.)
3) Choosing an execution plan that seems a good use of money. (SLS seems to be having troubles here, but don't forget that NASA setup the situation that created competition. Part of refocusing is to learn how to use each contributer's strengths in such a changing environment. The first part of the adaption is mission planning recognizing that the cost of boost to LEO is much cheaper.)
If the mission is to get folks on the moon again, then there should be a reason for doing this. Likely candidates include:
1) Show the flag for this administration and the country.
2) A jobs and technology development program.
3) A technology validation program for Mars.
4) A fuel or raw material source outside the bulk of Earth's gravity.
One way to use cheap boosters might be to make a spacecraft. Aside from the LEM, NASA hasn't really made a spacecraft. (Something that is designed to move folks around in space without the constraints of launch and reentry.) I'd like to see them make something that can go from Earth orbit to Moon orbit to Mars orbit. Given the drastic differences in these mission profiles, it would probably end up as a set of modules, each focused on doing something well. Perhaps:
1) Propulsion, comm, and nav
2) Cryo transport, storage, and cooling (Probably including droppable fuel tanks to replace staging)
3) People transport, and support
4) Cargo transport
5) Lander and it's transport
You could start with a small version of 1 and 2 and orbit the moon.
Then add 3 and doit with folks.
The key is to define a reasonable module interface and stick with it as the inventory of modules grows to support more and more interesting missions.
Breaking the system into swappable modules may cost more fuel, but opens the door to best of breed competition and mission and funding options.
The politics seems so obvious but no one is pointing it out. Going back to the moon is great, but why five years? It absolutely must be done in that time and we'll do whatever it takes to make sure it isn't six? Of course there's a reason for that. If Trump gets reelected, that would mean it happens while he's president. In six years it wouldn't, and that's totally unacceptable.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
Except we won't give you the money this shit actually costs.
The last great thing a republican did was win the civil war. Every other great achievement has been done by Democrats.
Won WW1,WW2, went to the moon.
Are they going to get Mexico to pay for that too?
I could've sworn NASA itself had said there's little reason for us to go back to the moon, and that they're rather spend whatever money they get elsewhere.
But then, as long as NASA can justify some programs being part of that moon objective (whether directly or indirectly), they can take the money and invest it in those projects. That is, spend the money developing technology if it's going to be needed anyway--whether it's for the moon or not. I suppose that's a plus.
America needs to re-establish her ownership of the Moon.
~Any apparent grammatical or typographic errors are caused by defects in your display device.
If you want to cut a project's delivery time in half, you almost always need to write a huge check.
So doing this means one of two things:
1. A big check is authorized by leaders of the nominally small-government political party.
2. NASA drops a number of other projects that are far more useful.
There is no point in sending a government tourist to the moon in 2019. Unless we are planning to establish long-term facilities or learning something important, the moon is a waste of resources. I see no indication of either benefit from the article.
---
According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
That is a very good idea, please send him there ASAP.
The key letter in the name A stands for Administration. They should never have developed anything in house. Nor should they do any direct science in house. They should stick to paper and sign checks. It should have always been subcontractors with more autonomy rather than than golf buddies, corporate welfare for defense contractors, and backroom payoffs. You had people designing contracts with irrelevant requirements such that only one company would qualify.
The government needs to change it's business model. It needs to set a price and not pay anything until it's delivered. The money should sit in escrow until completion just like the x-prize that started all this.
I wish they would do it. Do a first all-up test of everything in one shot. The one stipulation being that the vice president be a part of the crew.
One person with lots of computers should be plenty in 2024.
as part of their belt and road.
You all pay much less than you receive.
Lucky you have China to loan you the cash.
Or did you finally figure out what lead the way means?
And that you can't join something you pioneered.
WindBourne opened strongly with a lie about American beef. Directly contradicting the link in the post he responded to. No excuse for that one.
Then he quickly followed up with a two for one. Claiming America makes the most Electric vehicles and buys the most efficient air conditioners.
He was really on a roll, as almost immediately he posted this set of lies, claiming China has the worse air conditioning efficiency (they are better than America) and falsely accusing someone else of lying (even though they showed links).
He also doubled down on his lies Replying to a linked IEA report with some random blog that didn't even agree with him anyway.
Thinking that wasn't enough lies, he then falsely claimed again someone else was lying. He also attempted to lie about what his link said and tried to pretend he proved the other person was a liar. Quite a ballsy move, he must have been getting quite desperate.
Lastly to round out the week he went back to one of his longtime favourite lies. Claiming China is 80% coal.
So in summary, lies about beef, lies about electric vehicles, lies about air conditioning, lies about coal, and the standard "falsely calling everyone else a liar".
All in just one week.
I often hear spacecadets claim that NASA is being starved because it now gets a far smaller percent of the budget than in the 1960s --- but that's an extremely dishonest metric. The federal budget is insanely inflated over what it was in the 1960s. The better measure would be "inflation adjusted dollars". In 1971 (the year John Young took the 1st lunar rover on a spin at Hadley) NASA's budget was $19.8 billion (in 2014 dollars) and in 2017 when the agency did not launch a single astronaut anywhere on an American rocket NASA's budget was $18.8 billion (also in 2014 dollars).
Two other major things must be remembered:
1. Back in the Apollo era, All those new facilities. Like the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Johnson Space Center in Texas, much of the Space Power facility at Plum Brook, the engine test facilities at Stennis, the Gantry at Langley, test facilities at White Sands, and tracking facilities all across the globe needed to be built. All the technology like the computers, space suits, life support systems, heat shields, throttleable rocket engines for the LEM, had to be invented. New materials had to be created. New processes needed to be developed. Lots of stuff, like how to navigate to and from the moon, navigate on the lunar surface, bring two vehicles together in orbit and dock them, how to steer a capsule on a lofted trajectory during reentry, had to be figured out. NONE of this stuff needs to be re-done today. We have the knowledge and to the extent that we repeat any of the R&D as NASA & Boeing & Lockheed are doing with SLS-Orion it's an act of corruption fuelled by cost-plus contracts and lazy vendors.
2. Not only do we now already know how to do all the essentials and already have all the tech needed to do this, but we also have another HUGE advantage: WE know it can be done, and some of the people who did it are still alive and can help. We have vastly superior tech available to us now. The big heavy slow multi-million dollar computers on, for example, the LEM can now be done with something smaller, lower-powered, far lighter and vastly cheaper. During the shuttle program, NASA replaced all those tracking and communications sites around the world with the far cheaper and more capable space-based TDRSS satellites. We now have vastly superior Manufacturing capabilties, including 3D printing and friction stir welding. We now have vastly superior design tech including fantastic Finite Element Modelling for stuctural analysis, CAD systems instead of rooms full of draftsmen, CFD systems for studying the aerodynamics of proposed vehicles, and simulations for testing ideas before building them. In short, doing any particular task now should be far faster and cheaper.
What NASA needs to do is the following:
1. Stop shovelling BILLIONS of dollars into Boeing and Lockheed-Martin who have become fat, dumb, and happy on "cost-plus" contracts where their profits skyrocket when they deliver under-performing crap behind schedule and over-budget.
2. Stop trying to design new systems in-house - NASA's internal people are completely incompetent and lazy. They have been planning to send people to ORBIT the moon in Orion launched atop SLS sometime in the next decade - THAT'S OVER 20 YEARS AFTER COLUMBIA DISINTEGRATED and after spending more than $14 BILLION on SLS development so far and more than $16 BILLION on Orion development so far. Orion was supposed to be quick-and-cheap by re-using the Apollo Command module shape whose aerodynamics and hydrodynamis were thoroughly understood in the 1970s. SLS was supposed to be fast and cheap by converting a shuttle ET into a core stage, stretching the shuttle SRBs and using shuttle SSMEs.
Remember:
The entire Apollo program lasted from Sep1962 when Kennedy gave his famous speech at Rice University to Dec1972 when Apollo17 came home from the moon --- TEN YEARS AND THREE MONTHS.
World War II (for the United States) lasted from Dec1941 to Aug1945 --- LESS THAN FOUR YEARS.
It it DISGUSTING to s
The vast majority of Americans, including the NASA workforce and the workforces of all the suppliers of NASA in the 1960s were Christians. Many others were Jews. There were small numbers of people of other religious beliefs as well. At the time of its founding, the United States was over 80% protestant Christian (12 of the 13 colonies were OFFICIALLY protestant Christian) and over 10% Catholic (one colony was OFFICIALLY Catholic).
Most modern science was done by Christains and Jews, going all the way back to Copernicus and Newton.
America as a secular (majority non-religious) nation is an extremely recent thing.
Do not pretend that Christians are dumber than you are, unless you can prove yourself smarter and more-accomplished than all those Christians who created and protected the world of culture and science you live in.
Will Mike still have a boner for spacesuit chastity conquest when NASA finally fesses up that modern PC optics mandate a mixed-gender crew?
Aren't other programs needing those resources?
""It was rhetoric about 'by all means possible' and 'we'll provide the resources necessary' and 'leadership is essential,'" John Logsdon, a space policy expert at George Washington University, tells The Verge. "I mean, they're all good words. But the devil's in the details." "
So, you like the message, but hate the messenger. Got it.
Just another day in Paradise
Trump asked NASA for a MANNED mission to Mars WHILE HE STILL IN OFFICE to satisfy his ego! NASA said that's impossible, even he wins re-election. This this plan B. No scientific reason, no international co-operation, no reason for urgency. The goal to have Republicans remain in power of the American Empire. And the military-industrial complex has another massive welfare program for their mega-corporations. I weep for my country. It is hands of whores and gangsters.
Does your boss understand every detail about the job s/he expects you to do? The larger the organization, the less likely the bosses actually know how to do the stuff required of their reports. The boss's job is to steer reports in the direction of the organization at large.
I can't speak to the dollars and cost, etc., of space exploration, and I'm willing to bet that you can't either (much less comprehend how to manage a national budget). "Percentages of budget" assume getting the job done has something to do with the constantly changing value of a slice of an imaginary pie which, in your superficial political opinion, should be sliced differently.
In fact, this situation looks like a leader laying down a challenge for engineers to figure out a way to get something significant done within a time and money restraint, a relatively typical scenario for large-scale projects (and, from what I can gather about engineers, something they are good at and actually enjoy). So what's your problem? Pence's faith? Orange man bad? Or is it that the system is oppressing your vastly superior intellect, thus preventing you from saving the world?
Any means necessary, you say...