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The Augustine Commission's verdict is in, but it may not change our path
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The Augustine Commission releaed its final report a little over aweek ago, but the content of that report was relatively certain weeks before when the preliminary report was released. In that report, the Augustine Commission made clear what any informed individual examining our manned space efforts should have already seen- that the resources we are allocating to the effort fall far short of the mark that we claim that we are aiming for.
In that report, the current Ares I and V- based Project Constellation was marked as in need of significant budgetary outlays in order to get those problem-plagued efforts back on track. Project Cnstellation does have friends in high places tha argue that we're too far down the road to turn back now, but that argument is seriously in error. Given the difficult economic conditions we're currently in as a nation, it is difficult to see how we can justify additional spending, additional significant spending, no less, on an alternative that may not pan out in the end or that may require tens of billions of dollars before reaching a suitable resolution.
The truly difficult question raised by the report is based on the recommendation that, to meet existing goals, NASA requires several billion additional dollars of funding. Even if that is so (and I believe that it is), the likelihoo of the manned space program getting that large an infusion of cash is highly unlikely amid economic recession, a worsening war in Afghanistan, and the proposed health care and climate change legislation.
Despite that fact, what would be truly discuraging wuld be to stand here on Earth nearly 40 years after humans first set foot on the moon, not knowing when we might do so again.
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