Budget Cuts Back Much- Promoted NASA Missions
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
Comments:
This is an unpatriotic news posting, which emboldens our enemies, and endangers our astronauts. It does a great dissserviss to my bold vision of the past. We must stay the course, until we can say (Mars) Mission Accomplished.<br><br>W
Jess,<br><br>I'm really not sure that I see what you mean. I'm one of the most patriotic people you could ever hope to run across. That said, I'm not sure how this news item "emboldens our enemies".<br><br>Facts are facts and I am extremely outraged by this news, as are others that frequent this website. My disbelief led to my posting with the hope that the amateur community would take action and write congress and the senate. I truly believe we cannot sit idly and watch our "elected government" make these budget cuts if we are to continue our advancement in this space.<br><br>My apologies for ruffling your feathers.<br><br>Chris<br><br>P.S. The correct spelling is "disservice".
They cut the budget for meaningful science, yet the black hole, aka Death Mobile, aka Widow Maker, aka Cash Cow continues to be fly.<br><br>Sigh...
When my Dad left NASA (Director - GSFC and one of the founders of the STDN network) in 1973 he was a somewhat vocal critic of the (then new) shuttle program. Even way back in the manned "glory days" there were some who thought manned spaceflight was cannibalizing real science mission funds for “good PR”.<br><br>Some things just don’t seem to change. Maybe it is time to let the commercial folks like Virgin take the manned missions to send rich celebs into “almost LEO” fun rides as pay-as-you-go and let NASA focus on the real science.<br>
As a fan of space exploration both manned and unmanned, this is a heartbreaker really. <br><br>I've never been one of those unmanned good/manned bad kind of people. I think we can do both actually. <br><br>Sad thing is it would only take a small increase in the over percentage of the federal budget devoted to NASA to allow them to have enough cash to pursue their robotic and human missions.<br><br>Unfortunately to the man in the street, he often thinks NASA accounts for about 10-25 percent of the federal budget. Little do they know that the average US citizen spends more money on booze and cigarettes than they do space exploration.
Hey, with enough cigarettes and the right proof of booze, we could power our own 'citizen's sin saucer'.<br><br>Space is already hazardous to your health, so what the hey?... But at least it's a natural high.<br><br>Jess Tauber
I called my Congressman, who just happens to be Sherwood Boehlert Chairman of the Science Committee, to voice my displeasure with the cutting of the NASA budget and science programs. He was unavailable, but one of his staff members said that she would pass on my concerns to the Congressman.<br><br>George Normandin
I can't say that I'm surprised given the massive debt this country has amassed and the anti-science stance of the current administration.<br><br>
It's shortsighted to blame the current administration for NASA's fiscal problems. Better to blame the previous 3 or 4 administrations for betting the farm on the shuttle and the space station.
A good example of how science is getting short-changed is the cancellation of the Dawn probe. An unrealistic price cap of $373 million for a two asteroid interception mission doomed this mission to fiscal failure. <br><br>If there is any fiscal risk, NASA is running away. What is interesting is the fiscal risk for supporting the space station is much higher...costs will increase from a much higher base. <br><br>JFK set goals which were met. Where is the political will to meet science and manned exploration goals? This is a crisis in leadership. America can accomplish very high goals, but our current leadership is aiming low.<br><br>with kind regards,<br><br>Lawrence Fry<br><br>.ps I have written my political representatives.
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