Orion Lite and possibly more Shuttle Missions !

[Anthony Scira]

Wow increased NASA funding and possibly extending the Shuttle life. Hope they do not cut corners that put the Space Program at risk.

Good day for us Space enthusiasts.........

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6957758.html

[Jim Rimmer]

Good day for those of us who live within a few miles of Johnson Space Center. I was not only concerned with the demise of the space program but also what would happen to my property values if the greater Clear Lake area sudenly lost 1000s of jobs at JSC and support companies.

[Jerome Hanby]

It amazes me that a Government that supposedly has the best interests of Americans in mind could ever cut back on our space program. It's a very mild argument that virtually everything that distinguishes us from the rest of the world is tied to or repersented by our space program. Forty years after setting foot on the moon and we haven't put a man on mars, we should be embarrassed.

[Greg Peterson]

I was not quite six years old when Armstrong walked on the moon. But I was familiar with the Apollo program even at that early age. And up through the first year of the Shuttle program NASA held an almost magical influence over me. Anything to do with the space program was simply fascinating.

The margin by which The US initially led the world in space technology has greatly diminished. A superpower nation, IMO, is measured more by its ability to be inspirational and aspirational rather than its military might.

[Jim Rimmer]

It amazes me that a Government that supposedly has the best interests of Americans in mind could ever cut back on our space program. It's a very mild argument that virtually everything that distinguishes us from the rest of the world is tied to or repersented by our space program. Forty years after setting foot on the moon and we haven't put a man on mars, we should be embarrassed.
I could give you my opinion on why this was done but it would violate the TOS and the mods would be all over me. Let me just say that I agree with you. Not only does it show that we are truly a nation leading in technolgy but the spin offs from the space prgram have changed the world, and I'm not just talking about Tang. Would they have been developed anyway? Maybe, but not as quickly. So, it remains to be seen what exactly will happen and I, for one, hope that NASA and the Space Center get even stronger.

[Brian Elfert]

Sending humans to Mars is a whole lot more complicated (and expensive) than landing on the moon. The trip can't be done in a week or 10 days like a trip to the moon. It certainly can be done if Nasa was infused with huge amounts of money like the moon days.

There are many who would argue that the cost of space travel is far more costly than the benefit derived.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Sending humans to Mars is a whole lot more complicated (and expensive) than landing on the moon. The trip can't be done in a week or 10 days like a trip to the moon. It certainly can be done if Nasa was infused with huge amounts of money like the moon days.


A flight to Mars will fail.

I'd rather not test that opinion with real lives. Counting robotic missions, almost half of the missions to the Moon and Mars have ended in crashes. We almost lost Apollo 11 while landing on the moon and Apollo 13 just 2 days away from home. Skylab was nearly wrecked on blast-off. The numerous Gemini in-flight failures are well documented and we've lost 2 out of 5 shuttles within eyesight of the surface of our own planet. Mir was nearly lost to a fire in orbit and Apollo 1 was lost on the pad during a test.

We have the technology to return bits of Mars back to earth, but it isn't exciting and doesn't get the dollars flowing. It can be done.
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[Anthony Scira]

"It amazes me that a Government that supposedly has the best interests of Americans in mind could ever cut back on our space program."

They were ALWAYS giving NASA a budget increase, just putting programs that did not make sense the boot. There was never any talk of reducing the NASA budget........

[Anthony Scira]

We need to keep the focus on innovation that will keep us the leader.

The problem with the Shuttle is it is VERY expensive to launch. I think I have seen figures from 100-450 million a launch. And an overall cost (number of missions/cost of whole program) of well over a billion dollars a flight. There are cheaper ways to get things into space.

And tell you the truth we need to fund free thinkers like Burt Rutan. That guy got spaceship one into space on a shoestring budget. And NASA hopes to have private industry putting Americans into space within the next 5 years.

I have always been a big supporter of NASA and our space program. We still are on the cutting edge and with a 6 billion dollar increase we will hopefully stay there.

[Horton Brasses]

Some pretty smart folks think NASA would be better utilized looking for asteroids and meteors that could potentially hit the earth-and spend the money figuring out ways to stop them should they find one. Seems reasonable, and certainly a good use of resources by a superpower. This is something that would be inspirational and aspirational for the entire world.

That said, I have always felt that we as humans should always be exploring and expanding our horizons. While the government (us) doesn't exactly have money to burn we do always need to be investing in our future.

Space missions are the ultimate exploration IMHO. By giving up space exploration are we giving up on knowledge and limiting our horizons? I think so.

-Orion

[Anthony Scira]

With the high speed robotics, sensors and other toys in the toybox. Its is a lot cheaper to explore with missions like the Mars rover, Hubble and the likes.

Taking the human element out of it for the time being stretches our budget a lot farther.

I mean the ISS is to be retiring as soon as 2015. Man they are not even done building the thing !

I would say they should cut back the Shuttle but keep it on call just in case there is a need to retrieve/repair anything. I don't think any country has the ability to snatch something out of orbit and bring it back.

[Greg Peterson]

I would love to see the Saturn V sitting on a launch pad again. Now that is a rocket!

[Mitchell Andrus]

And tell you the truth we need to fund free thinkers like Burt Rutan. That guy got spaceship one into space on a shoestring budget.

Getting into space is a matter of brute force and good for him to get to 62 miles for about a minute.

It is quite another thing to get a man, life support and a heat shield up to 300 miles, around a few times and back safely. Orbit requires a speed of 17,500 MPH. Rutan's fiberglass bird was going zero MPH at apogee.

Getting there isn't the problem whether going to the Moon, Mars or back to Earth. Slowing down and landing safely has ALWAYS been the biggest engineering hurdle and Rutan isn't even close to doing this from orbital altitude and speed and likely won't.

He's planning on taking people into space for a few minutes. Orbiting for an few hours isn't in his playbook and likely won't ever be. The finances just aren't there for a return form orbit vehicle.
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