food for thought.

Asusual, the politicians are totally missing the point. I new goal in space (like SSI' original plans), wouldcreate jobs and cost a lot of money-but they don't seem to care about spending money in Washinton. The job creation would be worth it-becauseall of those people with jobs would be paying taxes. I guess its justtoo logical.
I was tellingmycollege students about this today. My view is that mostof the politicians in power are too old to think of a grand vision in space as practical. Young people say- What's the problem?

John Personette

Illinois Valley Comm. College

> Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:14:27 +0000
>
> FYI,
>
> "Obama Aims to Ax Moon Mission"
> Orlando Sentinel
> http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-no-moon-for-nasa-20100126,0,2770904.story
>
> : NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the
> : rockets being designed to take them there that is, if President
> : Barack Obama gets his way.
>
> : When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there
> : will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to
> : return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive
> : Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans
> : to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the
> : Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed
> : to take humans back to the moon.
>
> : There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation
> : program at all.
>
> : In their place, according to White House insiders, agency
> : officials, industry executives and congressional sources familiar
> : with Obama's long-awaited plans for the space agency, NASA will
> : look at developing a new "heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take
> : humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit. But that day
> : will be years possibly even a decade or more away.
>
> : In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on
> : Earth-science projects principally, researching and monitoring
> : climate change and on a new technology research and development
> : program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and
> : the inner solar system possible.
>
> : There will also be funding for private companies to develop
> : capsules and rockets that can be used as space taxis to take
> : astronauts on fixed-price contracts to and from the International
> : Space Station a major change in the way the agency has done
> : business for the past 50 years.
>
> : The White House budget request, which is certain to meet fierce
> : resistance in Congress, scraps the Bush administration's Vision for
> : Space Exploration and signals a major reorientation of NASA,
> : especially in the area of human spaceflight.
>
> : "We certainly don't need to go back to the moon," said one
> : administration official.
>
> : Everyone interviewed for this article spoke on condition of
> : anonymity, either because they are not authorized to talk for the
> : White House or because they fear for their jobs. All are familiar
> : with the broad sweep of Obama's budget proposal, but none would
> : talk about specific numbers because these are being tightly held by
> : the White House until the release of the budget.
>
> : But senior administration officials say the spending freeze for
> : some federal agencies is not going to apply to the space agency in
> : this budget proposal. Officials said NASA was expected to see some
> : "modest" increase in its current $18.7 billion annual budget
> : possibly $200 million to $300 million more but far less than the
> : $1 billion boost agency officials had hoped for.
>
> : They also said that the White House plans to extend the life of the
> : International Space Station to at least 2020. One insider said
> : there would be an "attractive sum" of money to be spent over
> : several years for private companies to make rockets to carry
> : astronauts there.
>
> : But Obama's budget freeze is likely to hamstring NASA in coming
> : years as the spending clampdown will eventually shackle the agency
> : and its ambitions. And this year's funding request to develop both
> : commercial rockets and a new NASA spaceship will be less than what
> : was recommended by a White House panel of experts last year.
>
> : That panel, led by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine,
> : concluded that to have a "viable" human space-exploration program,
> : NASA needed a $3 billion annual budget hike, and that it would take
> : as much as $5 billion distributed over five years to develop
> : commercial rockets that could carry astronauts safely to and from
> : the space station.
>
> : Last year, lawmakers prohibited NASA from canceling any
> : Constellation programs and starting new ones in their place unless
> : the cuts were approved by Congress. The provision sends a "direct
> : message that the Congress believes Constellation is, and should
> : remain, the future of America's human space flight program," wrote
> : U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., last month.
>
> : Nevertheless, NASA contractors have been quietly planning on the
> : end of Ares I, which is years behind schedule and millions of
> : dollars over budget. NASA has already spent more than $3 billion on
> : Ares I and more than $5 billion on the rest of Constellation.
>
> : In recent days, NASA has been soliciting concepts for a new
> : heavy-lift rocket from major contractors, including Boeing Co.,
> : Lockheed Martin Corp. and Pratt & Whitney. Last week, a group of
> : moonlighting NASA engineers and rocket hobbyists proposed
> : variations on old agency designs that use the shuttle's main
> : engines and fuel tank to launch a capsule into space. According to
> : officials and industry executives familiar with the presentations,
> : some of the contractor designs are very similar to the one pressed
> : by the hobbyists.
>
> : Officially, companies such as Boeing still support Constellation
> : and its millions of dollars of contracts. Some believe that in a
> : battle with Congress, Ares may survive.
>
> : "I would not say Ares is dead yet," said an executive with one
> : major NASA contractor. "It's probably more accurate to say it's on
> : life support. We have to wait to see how the coming battle ends."
>
> : Few doubt that a fight is looming. In order to finance new science
> : and technology programs and find money for commercial rockets,
> : Obama will be killing off programs that have created jobs in some
> : powerful constituencies, including the Marshall Space Flight Center
> : in Shelby's Alabama. But the White House is said to be ready for a
> : fight.
>
> : The end of the shuttle program this year is already going to slash
> : 7,000 jobs at Kennedy Space Center.
>
> : One administration official said the budget will send a message
> : that it's time members of Congress recognize that NASA can't design
> : space programs to create jobs in their districts. "That's the view
> : of the president," the official said.
>
> Mark Reiff
>
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