Zubrin: Obama Readies to Blast NASA

By Robert Zubrin, Washington Times, 10.26.11

Word has leaked out that in its new budget, the Obama administration intends to terminate NASA’s planetary exploration program. The Mars Science Lab Curiosity, being readied on the pad, will be launched, as will the nearly completed small MAVEN orbiter scheduled for 2013, but that will be it. No further missions to anywhere are planned.

After 2013, America’s amazing career of planetary exploration, which ran from the Mariner probes in the 1960s through the great Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Spirit, Opportunity, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Galileo and Cassini missions, will simply end.

Furthermore, the plan from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also leaves the space astronomy program adrift and headed for destruction. The now-orbiting Kepler Telescope will be turned off in mid-mission, stopping it before it can complete its goal of finding other Earths. Even worse, the magnificent Webb Telescope, the agency’s flagship, which promises fundamental breakthroughs in our understanding of the laws of the universe, is not sufficiently funded to allow successful completion. This guarantees further costly delays, with the ensuing budgetary overruns leading inevitably to eventual cancellation.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/26/obama-readies-to-blast-nasa/

NASA at a Turning Point: Vibrant Future or Close Shop

Special Capitol Hill Forum, sponsored by The Mars Society and The Planetary Society

November 3, 2011  Rayburn House Office Building, Room 338, 11 AM-1 PM.  Lunch provided.

Speakers:

Dr. Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society

Professor Jim Bell, President of the Planetary Society

Professor Scott Hubbard, former Director NASA Ames Research Center

Dr. Heidi Hammel, Executive VP, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

America’s space program is currently facing a severe crisis.

The planetary exploration program is in grave danger. In its FY 2012 budget, the OMB has effectively terminated support for future missions.  The Mars Science Lab Curiosity — currently being readied on the pad — will be launched, as will the nearly completed small Mars orbiter MAVEN scheduled for 2013, but that is it.  No further missions to anywhere are in the budget.  If things are allowed to stand, after 2013 America’s amazing career of planetary exploration, which ran from the Mariner probes in the 1960s through the great Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Spirit, Opportunity, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Galileo, and Cassini missions, will simply end.

The space astronomy program is also headed for destruction.  The now orbiting Kepler telescope will be turned off in mid-mission, stopping it before it can complete its goal of finding other Earths.  Even worse, the magnificent Webb telescope, the agency’s flagship, which promises fundamental breakthroughs in our understanding of the laws of the universe, is in danger of not getting sufficient funds to allow a completion in a timely manner.  This guarantees further costly delays, with the ensuing budgetary overruns leading inevitably to eventual cancellation.

The human spaceflight program has lost the ability to reach orbit, and is adrift in the face of an ongoing fiscal tsunami.  Lacking a meaningful goal for the next decade or more, it could easily end up on the block as well.
The ostensible reason for the decision to kill planetary exploration and space astronomy is budgetary discipline.  Yet while overall federal spending has grown 40 percent since 2008, NASA’s funding has remained virtually the same.  It is not NASA that is bankrupting America, and our nation’s space program should not be made a casualty of overspending elsewhere.  Acceptance of the destruction of our space exploration effort simply amounts to acceptance of American decline.  That is something we truly cannot afford.

America need not accept defeat in space.  Come to the forum and join the discussion on how we can insure the continuation of our nation’s great pioneer tradition in space.

www.planetary.org                                                                                 www.marssociety.org

For further information about the Mars Society, visit our website at www.marssociety.org. Your donations are welcome.

Mars Society Steering Committee Statement on NASA’s SLS-HLV

On September 14, 2011, NASA announced plans to develop the Space Launch System — an exploration-class, advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLV) designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as cargo and equipment to the International Space Station, and ultimately to deep space.  The SLS rocket will use a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion system with an initial lift capacity of 70 tonnes evolvable to 130 tonnes. The first flight is targeted for late 2017.

The Mars Society believes that NASA should develop an HLV, because an HLV is a critical system for enabling human exploration beyond LEO.  The Space Launch System HLV as currently designed is fine.  However, NASA’s human spaceflight program needs a mission.

The proposed plan is to spend $3 billion per year to get the HLV flying by 2017, without anything for it to launch until a putative asteroid mission in 2025. The Mars Society believes that this plan will almost guarantee program cancellation. NASA should not develop an HLV for 4th of July displays. It has to be developed as part of a plan to support a defined mission, with other necessary flight elements developed in parallel.

NASA’s proposed SLS-HLV budget of $3 billion per year is much higher than is actually needed to fund an HLV, and appears to be an effort to spend the former Shuttle program funds for political purposes. If this much funding is available, NASA should use the funds to develop the full spectrum of flight elements needed for human missions beyond LEO in parallel, enabling the near Earth asteroid mission by 2017, with Mars missions to follow a few years later.

NASA needs a deep space mission. From the mission comes the plan; from the plan comes the things necessary for its implementation. NASA needs to fund missions, not things. The mission comes first.

The Steering Committee of the Mars Society ratified this policy statement on NASA’s SLS-HLV by a vote of 12 yes, with 8 abstentions.