Re: NASA Rushing To Mars As Per Bush's Policy

From: Steven L. (sdlitvin_at_earthlinkNOSPAM.net)
Date: 02/22/05 

Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 22:54:11 GMT

Bob Eldred wrote:

> "Steven L." <sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net> wrote in message
> news:ccKSd.8705$x53.1467@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>
>>NASA rushes plan to send humans to moon, Mars, despite doubts
>>
>>By ROBERT S. BOYD
>>Knight Ridder Newspapers
>>
>>WASHINGTON - NASA is racing to carry out President Bush's costly vision
>>of sending humans back to the moon and then on to Mars - despite the
>>federal budget squeeze and doubts in Congress and the scientific
>>community about the plan's wisdom.
>>
>>Even some of the project's allies are balking at its price tag and
>>headlong pace.
>>
>>NASA is "trying to do too much at once," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert,
>>R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee, a strong supporter of
>>the space agency. He protested that NASA is "barreling ahead" even
>>though Congress "has never endorsed - in fact, never even discussed -
>>the vision."
>>
>>"I think NASA is headed for a potential train wreck," warned Rep. Bart
>>Gordon, D-Tenn., the committee's senior Democrat, who worried that the
>>Moon-Mars plan is gobbling up funds for other scientific ventures.
>>
>>Even some space agency officials are expressing concern. The cost and
>>complexities of the Moon-Mars project make this "a time for sobering
>>up," Michael Meyer, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration, told a
>>committee of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this month.
>>
>>It's been a little over a year since Bush announced "The President's
>>Vision for U.S. Space Exploration," but the space agency has already
>>awarded 118 preliminary contracts for the project. It's requesting fresh
>>ideas from industry and universities in order to launch a large new
>>spaceship, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), three years from
>
> now.
>
>>The $15 billion CEV is supposed to take over from today's aging fleet of
>>space shuttles and carry astronauts "to the moon, Mars and beyond," as
>>NASA officials like to say.
>>
>>By this summer, two aerospace teams will be chosen to construct
>>competing prototypes of the CEV. A final version will by chosen by the
>>end of 2006, and the first unmanned flight is scheduled for 2008.
>>
>>"To meet the president's timeline, we need to start technology
>>development now," said Craig Steidle, a retired admiral who heads the
>>agency's Exploration Systems Directorate. "There is urgency in the
>>president's agenda."
>>
>>The administration has asked Congress for $3.2 billion for the second
>>year of the Moon-Mars project. That's a 23 percent increase from its
>>first-year kitty of $2.6 billion. Bush wants total NASA spending to grow
>>just 2 percent to $16.5 billion for the 2006 fiscal year, so other NASA
>>programs are getting cut.
>>
>>The project enjoys a White House promise of increasing funds, totaling
>>$20.3 billion over the next five years (through fiscal year 2010).
>>Outlays surge thereafter, and NASA estimates that it will spend $100
>>billion on the project through 2020.
>>
>>"This is an absolute priority on the part of the president," White House
>>Budget Director Joshua Bolten told congressional budgeteers last year.
>>The project also enjoys the powerful support of House Majority Leader
>>Tom DeLay, R-Texas, whose Houston district houses NASA's Johnson Space
>>Flight Center.
>>
>>Meanwhile, scientists worry about the impact of the huge enterprise on
>>other endeavors, such as astronomy, physics and climate change.
>>
>>The exploration project has already doomed plans to prolong the life of
>>the successful Hubble Space Telescope. A mission to detect Earth-like
>>planets around other stars has been postponed for two years, until 2012.
>>
>>Some space science missions have been delayed indefinitely, such as one
>>to explore Jupiter's moon, Europa, which might support life beneath its
>>icy surface, and another to study the mysterious "dark energy," a sort
>>of anti-gravity, which is forcing the universe to expand.
>>
>>The National Academy of Sciences has called dark energy the most
>>important question in physics and astronomy today. The Europa mission
>>was the top priority of the astronomical community's 10-year plan
>>adopted in 2001.
>>
>>A panel of academy experts, headed by Yale University astronomer Megan
>>Urry, sent a letter to NASA, dated Feb. 14, stating that "the long-term
>>impact (of the Moon-Mars project) on astronomy and astrophysics is not
>>entirely clear, but short-term changes are already having an effect, and
>>there are community concerns that serious problems lie ahead."
>>
>>In an analysis of Bush's science budget, the American Association for
>>the Advancement of Science said the president's vision will "require
>>steep cuts in aeronautics and earth science funding and the cancellation
>>of a proposed Hubble servicing mission to pay for NASA's ambitious space
>>exploration plans."
>>
>>"The goal of sending humans to Mars needs more definition," Meyer,
>>NASA's Mars scientist, told the National Academy committee. "What are
>>humans going to do on Mars? We have to protect Mars. Do we want to send
>>astronauts with all their dead skin cells and bacteria? We don't want to
>>contaminate the planet and replace possible extant life."
>>
>>On the Web:
>>
>>For more information, go to:
>>http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/explore_main.html
>>
>>http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/10956100.htm
>>
>>--
>>Steven D. Litvintchouk
>>Email: sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net
>>
>>Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.
>
>
> Pie in the sky crapola! There is no way in hell humans are going to mars in
> anything less that 50 to 100 years, if then. The technology does not exist
> to send and support humans on that length of trip and to safely get them
> back to earth from that distance.

What technology are you referring to?

> But, one would not expect the
> scientifically challenged bozo to understand that.

Perhaps somebody told him that NASA had been seriously thinking about
manned missions to Mars as far back as the 1970's. I recall that just
after Apollo 11, NASA scientists had worked out a reasonable option for
manned flight to Mars that could have taken place in 1986. 

-- 
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:  sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

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