Goodbye Moon and Mars, Hopefully Not Goodbye NASA

An article in Bloomberg:

By Jeff Bliss and Chris Dolmetsch

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama proposed scrapping a Bush administration plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 in a budget for NASA that would instead farm out some space operations to companies for missions closer to Earth.

The lunar program, known as Constellation, “was over budget, behind schedule and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies” according to the budget plan Obama issued today.

Obama’s budget would increase fiscal year 2011 funds for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by 1.5 percent and support the development of rocket systems that eventually might take U.S. astronauts back into deep space. In preparation for those trips, Obama envisions using robotic ships to find locations for future landings and test out new technology.

Obama’s proposal to spur development of new systems was a “very positive thing,” John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, said in an interview. “If this approach is sustained over the next decade or so, it will give us a better space program.”

The plan to drop the moon strategy has drawn opposition from lawmakers, who said they feared the changes could risk U.S. leadership in space.



‘Death March’



The Obama proposal “begins the death march for the future of U.S. human space flight,” Senator Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the subcommittee that determines NASA’s budget, said in a statement.

Companies won’t have the capability to safely transport astronauts in the next few years, the Alabama lawmaker said.

Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who said he also is concerned about relying so heavily on the commercial sector, will hold a Feb. 24 hearing to explore the feasibility of continuing some of the Constellation rocket development, said Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for Nelson.

In a preview of how NASA officials may try to persuade lawmakers to back their approach, Charles Bolden, the agency’s administrator, said the budget proposal will create jobs.

“We expect to support as many if not more jobs with the 2011 budget,” he said on a conference call with reporters.

NASA officials declined to give specific destinations or a timeline for missions beyond a few hundred miles of our planet.



Mars on Agenda



Lori Garver, NASA’s deputy administrator, said a differently conceived moon mission was possible and the ultimate goal is a Mars landing. Officials also mentioned flights to asteroids or to a moon of Mars as possibilities.

Nelson said it may make sense to go back to the moon with “robotic explorers” while focusing on other destinations for astronauts.

“Maybe what we need to do is get out of earth’s orbit and go to other planets, other planets’ moons and asteroids,” he said on a conference call.

Skepticism about Constellation grew after a presidential commission concluded last year that NASA would need $3 billion more a year for the program and wouldn’t get back to the moon until 2028.

Under the administration’s proposal, the space agency’s budget would rise to $19 billion from $18.7 billion this year.

Rockets made by companies would be used to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, whose life would be extended five years to 2020 under the budget proposal. The outpost, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth, is being developed in partnership with Russia, Canada, Japan and other nations.



Cargo Contracts



NASA said today it has awarded $50 million to companies to develop concepts for the astronaut taxi service.

The winners include Chicago-based Boeing Co.; United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado; Paragon Space Development Corp. of Tucson; Kent, Washington-based Blue Origin LLC and Louisville, Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp.

The Obama proposal is “the only possibility” of the U.S. becoming “a true, space-going civilization,” said Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which may compete to ferry astronauts.

Musk spoke to reporters during a conference call sponsored by the space industry.

The budget, if approved by Congress, would end large contracts for the building of new rockets.



Primary Rockets



Major contractors for Constellation’s primary rockets, the Ares I and Ares V, include Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems Inc., Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. and the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Inc. unit of Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp.

“It is not clear why at this time the nation would consider abandoning a program of such historic promise and capability,” Alliant said in a press release today.

Obama’s budget promotes the use of robotic spacecraft following years of extensive scientific discoveries in the solar system achieved with investments far smaller than what is required to sustain humans in space.

The robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in January 2004 for a 90-day mission, are still operating on the planet.

The Obama budget would support the development of satellites that monitor global climate change, specifically devices that oversee changes in polar ice sheets. The Science Mission Directorate, which includes climate-change monitoring, would get a 12 percent funding boost to $5 billion from $4.5 billion.