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Mars Society: NASA Funding Bill Could Cripple Vision For Space Exploration

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - The Mars Society would like to express its disappointment concerning the NASA portion of the Congressional Omnibus Appropriations Bill that was signed by the President last week.

    While the bill provides additional support for science missions - including for exploration of Mars - it fails to adequately fund NASA’s plans to return to the Moon and then send humans to Mars. One of the worst aspects of the bill is that it contains language that would prohibit “funding of any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to human exploration of Mars”.

    Not only is this language counter-productive to running a coherent multi-year exploration plan, but it is not consistent with the NASA Authorization that Congress overwhelmingly approved in 2005. In that Authorization bill, Congress approved NASA’s plans to send humans to Mars and supported the expenditures that will be necessary to make that goal possible - something that the Omnibus bill does not do.

    “Although this bill is unlikely to have a large immediate impact on the program, it sets a terrible precedent,” said Mars Society Political Director Chris Carberry. “If this language makes it into future budgets, I guarantee that this program will slowly become a Moon-only effort - or worse. Congress and the next President of the United States need to accelerate this program rather than limiting it. We certainly will not be creating an effective program or be serving the tax payers well by keeping this program endlessly on ‘life-support.’”

    The Mars Society calls on members of the United States Congress to oppose any efforts to include this language in any future budgets. It is time for the United States to fully commit to sending humans to Mars as soon as possible.

    The Mars Society is a private international grassroots organization dedicated to furthering the case for human exploration of Mars. Since its founding in 1998, The Mars Society’s strong commitment to both outreach and research has put it at the forefront of Mars exploration proponents, with 7000 members in 40 countries. The organization currently operates multiple world class research facilities which investigate many technical and human factors associated with human space exploration. Significant political and public outreach has led to several hundred meetings with U.S. congressional offices, and has otherwise reached hundreds of millions of people through various media outlets.

They are not afraid of the word progress.

http://spacereport.blogspot.com/
by providing an article from the Florida Today newspaper that said: "During the first campaign visit to the Space Coast by a 2008 presidential candidate, Republican Mitt Romney said he supports Bush's vision for space exploration and has no reason yet to propose a new direction."

I hope its not going to be generations! I hope to see an era of rapid progress like the early 20th century. Lets just perfect the technology for living on Mars and just go their. Mars is not the place for testing such technology for if it fails people die. Deterimine the reliabilty of the equipment before hand before sending any people. I think if we have until 2031, that is plenty of time to test the equipment, and by that time we should be ready to plant the first colony. We're not going to spend billions of dollars to go to Mars just to see if something works. That is basically my problem with the design reference mission as well, it doesn't use technology which could make it cheaper, it instead wastes billions of dollars going the cautious route until we can be sure we can produce propellent to fuel the return stage. I really don't think we need to be in the vicinity of Mars to test this equipment. I also think the Apollo 10 mission where they almost landed the lunar lander and aborted to see if it works was a waste of money. The might as well have landed the thing and would have had one lunar mission more to justify the expense of Apollo.

I think we should accept some risk. Even a successful colony would have some deaths occuring on Mars. People die on Earth, why shouldn't they also die in space and on Mars. The trick is to see to it that the deaths don't jeapordize the mission, and when missions fail, you just try to fix what is fixable and then you go on. People will die in space and on Mars, if we can't accept that then we shouldn't go there.

Generations of the transportation system, not people. Before Apollo there were two generations in the US system: Gemini and Mercury. After Apollo there was Shuttle and now Constellation. A Mars mission will require additional spacecraft (MTV, lander) and maybe a new inspace propulsion rocket (NTR). It seems unlikely that Mars colonists will be traveling in this generation of equipment.

2031 is a provisional, reference date for a Mars expedition, not a technical one. With enough funding it can be much sooner. If there's a better, cheaper technology fine, but so far there's no contenders. Going to the Moon is still at the edge of current technology, it will expensive and risky. There's more than enough risk already. Currently every crew that launch into space has about a 2% risk of dying. Ares I will reduce that risk by a factor of ten, but a lunar mission will still have about 5% risk, isn't that more than enough? Going to Mars will be more so.

Laplace. To study the Jovian system (three orbiters, one entirely dedicated to Europa!) in collaboration with NASA.
Tandem. To study the Saturnian-Titanian-Enceladusian environment (orbiter+carrier with a balloon and 3 probes to Titan) in colaboration with NASA.
Marco Polo. Sample return mission from an asteroid (à la Hayabusa) with orbiter+lander, sampler and return capsule; in collaboration with JAXA.
Dune/SPACE. Two proposed missions to study dark matter and dark energy.
Plato. Extrasolar planets detector, capable of detecting rocky planets.
Spica. Infrared telescope with wide field of analysis, spectroscopy and coronograph; in collaboration with JAXA.
XEUS. X-ray telescope to study extreme environments from L2 halo orbit, consisting on a mirror satellite and a detector satellite flying in formation.

Given the tremendous external economic benefits generated by the U.S. space program, it seems beyond shortsighted that America is now merely limping toward the stars. Indeed, today, NASA's budget in real, inflation-adjusted dollars is a mere shadow of its former Apollonian self - even as China, India, Japan and Russia are rapidly increasing their expenditures and efforts on space exploration. Indeed, just this week, in what has been hailed as the "biggest moon mission since Apollo," Japan's first lunar space probe began to successfully orbit the moon and transmit pictures and data back to Earth. In the coming weeks, China will launch a similar lunar probe as part of the world's most ambitious space program - one that includes plans for a moon colony, missions to Mars, and a permanent space station. In 2008, even India is scheduled to launch its own lunar mission.

America's space indifference has hit our educational system extremely hard. In the current political climate, students no longer find excitement - or lucrative job opportunities - in an array of fields that have, at least until this point, arguably been the most responsible for keeping America's economic engine revving. In the absence of a robust space program, the number of students entering college to study engineering is in a multiyear decline. Instead, college-age students raised during NASA's doldrums of the 1980s and 1990s are far more likely to pursue a career in real estate or law or business. That's a big reason why, since the mid-1980s, engineering enrollment has dropped from 80,000 a year to fewer than 50,000 - despite an increase in the U.S. population. This decline in America's commitment to space exploration - and therefore its commitment to science and technology - will soon be reflected in a slowing rate of innovation, a fall in worker productivity, a reduced GDP growth rate, and a decline in government revenues.

U.S. Senate Votes to Add $1 Billion to NASA Budget
http://www.planetary.org/programs/proje … 71004.html

The final bill will then be sent to the President for signature.  President Bush has already stated that he will veto the CJS Bill as passed,

“Senate approves $1B for NASA, but Bush will likely veto”

http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007 … kely-veto/
Sigh.

NASA has an impossible task: continue the Shuttle, finish the space station, start designing and building an entirely new class of rocket, and get us to the Moon.

And oh– they can’t spend any extra money doing all this. The budget is flat.

More on the appropriations veto threat

http://www.spacepolitics.com/2007/10/05 … to-threat/
In a Statement of Administration Policy document released by OMB on Thursday, the administration accused Congress of including ” an irresponsible and excessive level of spending and… other objectionable provisions” to the funding bill. “[I]f S. 1745 were presented to the President” in its current form, the statement warned, “he would veto the bill.”

next step : outsourcing NASA to India ?