Obama Backs New Launcher and Bigger NASA Budget

[tblaxland]

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/12/exclusiveobama.html
Juicy bits quoted below:

President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft.

According to knowledgeable sources, the White House is convinced that scarce NASA funds would be better spent on a simpler heavy-lift vehicle that could be ready to fly as early as 2018. Meanwhile, European countries, Japan, and Canada would be asked to work on a lunar lander and modules for a moon base, saving the U.S. several billion dollars. And commercial companies would take over the job of getting supplies to the international space station.

The new program would jettison Ares 1.

 

[jinglesassy]

cool! and the best part is "The new program would jettison Ares 1" that thing is to thin to be stable it seems

 

[DaveS]

cool! and the best part is "The new program would jettison Ares 1" that thing is to thin to be stable it seems

Nope. Ares 1 has been aerodynamically tested in real-life, in form of Ares 1X which flew a successful test flight on October 28. Vehicle control was excellent. It even used less RoCS propellant than predicted and fired the RoCS thrusters less frequently than predicted.

 

[eveningsky339]

Good news... but frankly, I plan on taking any government support for the space program with a grain of salt.

 

[Star Voyager]

Obama finally did something right, but we still need to use the Atlas and/or Delta instead of entirely new rockets.

 

[Juanelm]

Wow thats big news. Great news, actually!

 

[insanity]

Obama finally did something right, but we still need to use the Atlas and/or Delta instead of entirely new rockets.

I don't know if he finally did something right, as he's done a lot of things right... that whole saving the world from financial meltdown thing was pretty important, but I've digressed.

On the issue of the space policy, it seems like he's taken the most pragmatic possible path here. If we have to put people in space, this seems like the most reasonable path to do it. I'm glad NASA isn't getting the billions they asked for though.

 

[Hielor]

I'm glad NASA isn't getting the billions they asked for though.

When NASA gets the money they ask for, great things happen. Look at the 60s.

 

[insanity]

When NASA gets the money they ask for, great things happen. Look at the 60s.

The agency is bloated, it wasted a lot of money on something a lot of people did not believe would be the answer, and we have bigger domestic priorities that could use the extra 2 billion.

 

[Istochnikov]

When NASA gets the money they ask for, great things happen. Look at the 60s.

But first you should dismantle the entire agency. Put in it people that REALLY WORTH and REALLY LIKE space exploration and ONLY AFTER THAT, give the money

 

[Ark]

Wow...a whole billion dollars. That's, like, a week's worth of Iraq occupation!

Better than cutting it, at least. I think they knew that by asking for $3 billion they weren't actually going to receive more than half that.

Watch every single Republican, including those whose constituencies depend on NASA money, vote against it just because it's something Obama favors.

 

[jinglesassy]

they can find nearly 4000 people that love space right here

 

[tl8]

Well, at least they might have a clear direction. Get to the moon, get to the asteroids and the get to Mars. Skip Ares I which doesn't have much point any more and go straight for the big on.

This seems at least positive news.

 

[Istochnikov]

they can find nearly 4000 people that love space right here

But i don't believe that Obama has enough time for finding this forum

4000? I said 3999, i'll go first to Liberia (AARC-CR division plantel) to burn a plasma rocket... it's nearer from my house (80 km) than NASA headquarters (How many kilometers there are from Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica to Wasinhton DC, USA?)

 

[Lucy]

We should introduce Obama to Orbiter. They'd get along famously.

 

[Bj]

Wow...a whole billion dollars. That's, like, a week's worth of Iraq occupation!

Reference

U.S. 2009 Monthly Spending in Iraq - $7.3 billion as of Oct 2009
U.S. 2008 Monthly Spending in Iraq - $12 billion
U.S. Spending per Second - $5,000 in 2008 (per Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on May 5, 2008)
Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq - $390,000 (Congressional Research Service)

More like 1.825 billion a week, but hey, who s counting?

 

[SiberianTiger]

Excuse me, I'm just missing exactly which "simpler" rocket design he has backed? There were several competing.

 

[Hielor]

The agency is bloated, it wasted a lot of money on something a lot of people did not believe would be the answer, and we have bigger domestic priorities that could use the extra 2 billion.

There's always people who disagree with the direction it takes. Armchair physicists and armchair rocket scientists are everywhere, claiming to know what's best.

And bigger domestic priorities with the $2bn, like what? Paying off banks that caused the financial crisis in the first place? The "bailout" last year totalled more than NASA's entire budget has been throughout its existence. Same with the Iraq war.

 

[Linguofreak]

Wow. Certainly a step in the right direction.

 

[Urwumpe]

That is still to vague to say anything about it. Obama could as well meant "Kill NASA gently" with it. Also I don't know what he means with "Europe and Japan could build lunar modules". Does he think "Yes, we can" does miracles in spaceflight? We have just barely managed to get the ATV done here, despite all political forces to make life harder. And still have not even found the guts to make a fully manned spacecraft out of the ATV. And now we should build lunar module stuff? Maybe in 2025 at the current pace and funding. But not before 2018.

Spaceflight is the most cost-effective business in the world - a lot of invaluable gains (just look at the improvements in the weather reports now that you have weather satellites), for only little costs, compared to other government spending.

Especially the costs for Iraq and Afghanistan are far higher than the spaceflight budget. And contrary to spaceflight, in Iraq and Afghanistan, you can see your money fly away.