Obama aims to ax moon mission
NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way.
When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon.
There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.
In their place, according to White House insiders, agency officials, industry executives and congressional sources familiar with Obama's long-awaited plans for the space agency, NASA will look at developing a new "heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit. But that day will be years — possibly even a decade or more — away.
In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects — principally, researching and monitoring climate change — and on a new technology research and development program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and the inner solar system possible.
There will also be funding for private companies to develop capsules and rockets that can be used as space taxis to take astronauts on fixed-price contracts to and from the International Space Station — a major change in the way the agency has done business for the past 50 years.
The White House budget request, which is certain to meet fierce resistance in Congress, scraps the Bush administration's Vision for Space Exploration and signals a major reorientation of NASA, especially in the area of human spaceflight.
"We certainly don't need to go back to the moon," said one administration official.
Everyone interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity, either because they are not authorized to talk for the White House or because they fear for their jobs. All are familiar with the broad sweep of Obama's budget proposal, but none would talk about specific numbers because these are being tightly held by the White House until the release of the budget.
No. We have other problems right now. The moon is still going to be there in 20 or 30 years.
I don't think the plans should be scraped. It is a jumping off point to other space exploration projects.
Space construction, better orbital platforms and a more useful shuttle would all benefit from the program. In the long run this will hurt us.
I think Obama is really stupid to dump it.
I don't think the plans should be scraped. It is a jumping off point to other space exploration projects.
Space construction, better orbital platforms and a more useful shuttle would all benefit from the program. In the long run this will hurt us.
I think Obama is really stupid to dump it.
I don't think the plans should be scraped. It is a jumping off point to other space exploration projects.
Space construction, better orbital platforms and a more useful shuttle would all benefit from the program. In the long run this will hurt us.
I think Obama is really stupid to dump it.
I can't blame him though. People are already freaking out about minor issues simply because he is a democrat.
Tell you what. Let's first fix New Orleans and other problems we have terrestrially. Then we'll entertain notions of fantasy space travel.
Tell you what. Let's first fix New Orleans and other problems we have terrestrially. Then we'll entertain notions of fantasy space travel.
That would be like telling Chris Columbus to wait until Spain fixed all of its problems before setting sail.
Except that we're not talking about commissioning a few ships and sailors to go on a trip with well known technology. We're talking about fantasy space travel which would take several decades just to research and develop not to mention all the other problems and training which would come along with it. The price tag would be huge. In the meantime, we'd have to divert funds to go into the research and engineering feats necessary for space travel at the cost of tons of other research which could have been done on Earth and which could have produced much more useful results to us first.
But yeah, other than that, it's totally the same. :roll:
We can't fix all the things terrestrially, its like telling a killer to quit killing. Won't happen. I think you are living in a fantasy that you belive you can fix all the problems we have.
Pretty sure I didn't say all problems. But we have a large standing number of problems which need to be researched and solved before we starting thinking of Han Solo and flying the Millennium Falcon to Mars.
Pretty sure I didn't say all problems. But we have a large standing number of problems which need to be researched and solved before we starting thinking of Han Solo and flying the Millennium Falcon to Mars.
Columbus was centuries behind the Norse/Vikings, who were behind the Chinese.That would be like telling Chris Columbus to wait until Spain fixed all of its problems before setting sail.
I guess it can be compared to christopher columbus sailing and finding the new world but instead of landing with boots on the ground he just decides to turn around and leave with that.
And we always will. There has been no point in the history of this country where things were going peachy. We might as well, the sooner we do it, the sooner we will find a payoff.
When was the moon calimed the first time?
Ok being serious. Is there an economic benefit to having a moon base?
Tell you what. Let's first fix New Orleans and other problems we have terrestrially. Then we'll entertain notions of fantasy space travel.
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