Posted on 02/09/2012 7:20:41 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists say NASA is about to propose major cuts in its exploration of other planets, especially Mars. And NASA's former science chief is calling it irrational.
With limited money for science and an over-budget new space telescope, the space agency essentially had to make a choice in where it wanted to explore: the neighboring planet or the far-off cosmos.
Mars lost.
Two scientists who were briefed on the 2013 NASA budget that will be released next week said the space agency is eliminating two proposed joint missions with Europeans to explore Mars in 2016 and 2018. NASA had agreed to pay $1.4 billion for those missions. Some Mars missions will continue, but the fate of future flights is unclear, including the much-sought flight to return rocks from the red planet.
The two scientists, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the budget, said the cuts to the Mars missions are part of a proposed reduction of about $300 million in NASA's $1.5 billion planetary science budget. More than $200 million in those cuts are in the Mars program, they said. The current Mars budget is $581.7 million.
"To me, it's totally irrational and unjustified," said Edward Weiler, who until September was NASA's associate administrator for science. "We are the only country on this planet that has the demonstrated ability to land on another planet, namely Mars. It is a national prestige issue."
...
Two years ago, President Barack Obama said his ultimate goal was to send astronauts to Mars.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ping.
Mars is a dead red rock. All the planets are dead except earth. Plus our dead moon. What's the point?? Why not explore Death Valley? At least you might find a bug.
SciFi giants Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke were way off in their timeframes for Martian exploration. They correctly projected the technology but not the will.
All the researchers and very smart people should have sought your advise first. It would have saved a lot of time, money and having to learn about all these space floaties.
Why go to Mars when the most pressing agenda is to ensure Muslim self-esteem is so large it’s OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!
Why go to Mars when the most pressing agenda is to ensure Muslim self-esteem is so large it’s OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!
simply a question of priorities...
this is much more important than giving NASA 1.5 billion for Mars:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2844719/posts
Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, ...
I always felt that we should really establish a presence on the moon first. It’s close and we can practice every technique necessary for exploring Mars in the future. Not to mention the supposed promise of Helium 3 and lunar water.
Hey, we can’t afford to go to Mars or even back to the moon. Apparently, we CAN afford to pay the Russians $1.5 Billion over the next five years to give our astronauts rides to the International Space Station in low earth orbit to observe global warming or something. We can also apparently afford to let the Red Chinese take the lead in space. This is what happens when The U.S. elects a Marxist president.
The ONLY purpose of NASA is to establish more ISLAM
on Earth and to transfer US technology to Obama-the Undocumented’s 57 States for Interplanetary Jihad.
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