What programs ARE funded under the current budget that are not considered science by the Planetary Society? They mentioned money being funneled to space shuttle operations, but is there anything else that is being funded that they would suggest are less important than the Europa mission, for instance?
Thanks for any insight.
-Gusset
That's probably subjective. The overall impression that I'm getting is that the administration is looking for ways to get away from searching for life on other planets and wants to go with things that are more politically advantageous among their supporters. Not many fundamentalist really want to find E.T. because that undermines their belief system. So what they are attempting to do is put up barriers to the discovery of life on other planets and stop looking for other earth like planets in other solar systems. It’s all very counter-productive to scientific discovery and achievement.
That's pretty thin. Forgive me for filing that one away under the conspiracy theory category.
Again, I don't know what the answer should be...I'm just looking at it from the "my project got cut/had it's budget decreased, so I'm going to scream really loud about it" angle: probably some truth, but probably some tunnel vision of its own.
I looked at the budget request summary on the NASA web site. The biggest piece of the pie is going to shuttle operations and CEV-related development, and as estimates have risen, they've taken dollars from some of the science programs to make up the shortfall.
What is the alternative? The shuttle needs to fly, expensive though it may be, or the ISS doesn't get completed (the value of the ISS is, of course, a totally separate topic as far as fiscal issues go), which is a commitment the US has made...I'm not aware of anything else that can do it. IIRC, the shuttle is also the only vehicle that can perform the Hubble servicing mission that is part of the budget (which I consider a top priority).
Should CEV development be cut back? That's another devil in the details. Cut it back, and we have no LEO capability once the shuttle is retired. We are already behind China in terms of manned capsule capability, so unless being second-best in terms of space capability is OK, we can't ignore that. I'd have a problem with any course that leaves NASA having to farm out our launch capability because we weren't willing to put the engineering effort into designing heavy launch platforms. Engineering/technology and scientific advancement go hand in hand...you can't have one without the other. Heavy launch capability should make a scientist drool at the thought of what can be flung out into the solar system.
I also noted in a space.com article that some of the cuts are under review (one was actually reversed). SOFIA (not certain exactly what it is...) is nearly complete and some lawmakers are lobbying for it.
Looking at the highlighted cancelled programs on the SOS page, I want to question one statement, and comment on one of the cancelled programs:
"Mars - systematically removed from NASA's exploration program" is just not true; there is $430M allocated for 2007 and 2009 launches of Mars landers, and the stated goal of putting a man on Mars would be silly to pursue without exploring further.
The cancelled Mars sample return mission is an incredibly complex engineering task (ref. recent sample return efforts, some successful and some not, by NASA and the Japanese). Its efficiency and chances of success will only get better with advancement from CEV and moon colonization research and development. You can bet that they're going to push hard for that one again in the not-too-distant future, because if nothing else it will be a proving ground for return-from-Mars technology that is needed for a manned mission.
I guess all I'm trying to say is that I can see the rationale behind some of the decisions and priorities. These don't appear to be thoughtless decisions.
I'd like to see the NASA budget increased, myself. Anything that advances science and technology is a good thing, so if there's going to be pork in the US budget, they can do worse than NASA. I don't like to see the US losing its leadership in those areas. It pains me to see the statistics about declining numbers of science and engineering students in this country.
Sheesh, I just read what I wrote...wow, that was long! Sorry...
-Gusset