In light of President Obama's 2013 budget that imposes a cut on NASA, the space agency has announced that it plans to cancel high-budget 'flagship' missionsto other planets in order to save much needed money. Speaking to the media after the budget announcement, John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science, said that “there is no room in the current budget proposal from the president for new flagship missions."
So, what does this mean for the future of space science?
First of all, planetary science is not dead, far from it. In NASA jargon, there are 3 tiers of programs in planetary missions: Discovery, Frontiers, and Flagship, with the Flagships being the most expensive, usually at a bill of over $2 billion. Some recent flagships: Cassini-Huygens, Galileo, and the on its way to Mars Curiosity rover.
Fortunately, though, there are no current flagships in progress as of the moment, so nothing is officially going to get canceled. Unfortunately, there were a couple of very ambitious flagships on the drawing board: a mission to a Mars that would return samples and a mission to Europa, the ice-covered Jovian moon that could very well harbor a deep ocean under the ice, which could, in turn, support life. Both missions could go a long way in not only helping scientists understand other worlds themselves, but improve knowledge of how life came about on Earth as Mars and Europa hold the best chances in the solar system for finding alien life, microscopic as it may be.
According to Grunsfeld, both are now on indefinite hold, but the agency is still planning missions for when the financial situation improves sufficiently to allow for another flagship to set sail. .
Needless to say, reaction to the cutshas been strong on many sides of the issue.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, senior member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, praised Obama's emphasis on fostering development of space technology in the private sector while, at the same time, comparing NASA's SLS rocket to theTitanic.
On the other hand, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ranking Member, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, took exactly the same opinion, stating that NASA, with its decades of experience, should take the lead in spaceflight instead of the private sector.
Bill Nye (aka the Science Guy) and Jim Bell, CEO and President of the Planetary Society, both came out against the cutting of flagship missions to the two places where life is most likely to exist, noting that only a mission on the flagship scale can answer these all-important questions.
Alex Saltman, the Commercial Space Federation's executive director, praised Obama's efforts to gain federal help for the private sector's quest to develop the technology to take over the nation's space exploration in regards to low-Earth orbit so that NASA can focus on deep space exploration, but added that that it is now on Congress to give the green light.
Needless to say, the opinionsare varied as there are a lot of points to consider. Come the time for Congress to hand out the cash, it will be interesting to see how these opinions may shape NASA's final budget for 2013.
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