New Mars Forums

To:Yang Liwei Rocket

I'm not going to say that you're anti-NASA -- but you sure seem to feed off pessimism.

You talk of the plans that different world space programmes (including NASA's) are endeavouring to accomplish, yet you quote the word plan ('plan') when referring to NASA's -- as if to mock them.
You then go on to talk about these grand plans of Russia, ESA and China, with no such quotes.

I don't know the answer to this question... But out of all the plans made by all of the space programmes in existance-which agency has made those plans into reality, more?

I presume, or it at least seems to be NASA. But, I could be wrong.

Your pessimism focuses on The Hubble telescope, The MTO, Voyager and News and Organisational reports.

Firstly, The Administrator of NASA has made it clear that he favours a Hubble upgrade mission. Besides, as much as I support a Hubble upgrade to get it through several more years of science -- If it doesn't get the intended upgrade, I'd still consider it's mission complete and an overwhelming success.
The administrator has also said there will be NO Voyager termination!

...Updated on news much?

The MTO appears to be canceled, yes.

But why not talk about the magnitude of success's?

The MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbitor) is going to launch very soon! It will examine the red planet in unprecedented detail from low orbit and provide more data about the intriguing planet than all previous missions combined!

The New Horizons craft is going through it's pre-launch testing now, and will launch next year -- to Pluto!

The Mars rovers are doing fabulous! Way beyond expectation!

Cassini is doing a magnificent job at the Saturnian System (As did Europe's joined probe, Huygens!)

And of course the recent Deep Impact mission.

And many other science and exploration mission successes I'm sure, but I'll stop here.

When it comes to public support and in particular the Poll you mentioned, Mike Griffin said it best when asked about it, Sunday ....

Question: MR. RUSSERT:  Mars and the moon--Gallup pollsters asked the American people about Mars and would they favor or oppose the United States setting aside money for such a project.  Funding a manned mission to Mars?  Favor, 40 percent, and opposed, 58 percent.  It's now estimated it will cost over $200 billion between now and 2025.  Fifty-eight percent of the Americans opposed. NASA has a large job ahead of itself to try to convince the American people that it is in their financial and fiscal interest to pursue Mars.

Answer: DR. GRIFFIN:  Well, when you poll and ask the question that way, you can get almost any answer you like.  It's very close to those, "Have you stopped beating your wife?" questions.  If I ask the question in a different way, I might get a very different answer.  The way I would ask it is, "NASA will spend about 5 percent or less of the money which is spent on national defense each year for the next 20 years.  What would you like to see done with that money.  Given that we're going to spend that money on the American space program, what would you like to see done with it?" and then list various options.  "Returning to the moon, eventually going to Mars, exploring the asteroids and other planets, or would you rather that the United States space program be confined to lower-Earth orbit as we have been for the last 30 years?"  And I strongly suspect that if confronted with choices, if confronted with the knowledge that we're going to be spending money on space and confronted with choices about where we should spend that money, that those poll results would change dramatically.

^Indeed

Okay, I'm done with my rant.

Cheers!