Wait! Before I go any further, let's put NASA's PRESENT budget into perspective. Not the chump change that they will be allotted. The Army (just the army now) spends more just for air-conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan in that region's summer months than NASA's entire yearly budget! I am not busting on the military, I just get tired of people telling me that all that money NASA spends is just so wasteful! And to find out it doesn't even cover the AC bill for one arm of the armed forces!? Un frackin believable!
Anyway, NASA science chief John Grunsfeld wants to scrape together funds from the human spaceflight program and the space technology division to come up with about $700 million to make something happen by 2018. Why the fascination with that date? Well it all comes down to orbital efficiency. Between Earth and Mars, a close approach happens about every two years and once in every sixteen years you have an optimal positioning of the planets that requires the least amount of fuel to transfer from Earth to Mars. 2018 just so happens is one of those super optimal times. So now it comes down to a mission that can do as much as it can with extremely limited funds.
<- dvice article ->
****UPDATE*****
There seems to be some disparity between the Dvice article and the Nature article from which it was based. Taking my information mostly from the DVICE reference lead to a bit of misunderstanding and I feel it best to clarify. The budgetary numbers in question are for NASA's Mars program. This is how the Nature article stated the cuts:
<- dvice article ->
****UPDATE*****
There seems to be some disparity between the Dvice article and the Nature article from which it was based. Taking my information mostly from the DVICE reference lead to a bit of misunderstanding and I feel it best to clarify. The budgetary numbers in question are for NASA's Mars program. This is how the Nature article stated the cuts:
- the Mars programme from $587 million in 2012 to $189 million in 2015
If you would like to read the Nature.com article - it can be found here
8 comments:
ask some of these multi-billionaires to cough up some chump change.
seems they have no problem funding an election.
oh .......another thought......maybe partner with say china and russia and any other countries willing.......oh that would be way more logical. you know a united earthling approach to space travel.
Exactlly Henryii!!
186 mil and we are watching the millions that are being tossed into this election! Plus you have to look at the behind the scenes lobbying and then the waste in government spending....you can go on and on and to think that gutting NASA is a way to SAVE money?!! And asking the mega rich to cough up some chump change? Better luck urinating into a facing wind....
You want to talk about waste in the military. I served from 81-84. We had an IG inspection, so guess what happened to anything extra we had. In the dumpster. This means, tools that were perfectly good, parts that were perfectly good, and even a 6-71 blower went into the trash. There is no bigger wasters than the US military, I know, I was there. But, we cut the budget of nasa, which has given more than i can list here, while other nations are moving forward. I see it this way. Americans have given up on everything sensible, but they sure scream for things that cannot be seen or proven. ANd these are the same people that says science lies. I think we're done for.
Damn bleak picture Kallamis.
a 6-71? God I would have sold a organ to get a chance at one of those beauties!
And to have seen that level of waste in person...mind numbing....
Just to let you know, the blower was recovered, a manifold ordered, and placed on a camaro my buddy had there. But yeah, the waste in the military is beyond extreme. I had a tool, that i signed for, that was supposed to be a special tool. It was, sort of, I guess by their reckoning. It cost the army 1150 dollars, or some insane nonsense like that. All you needed to do was take a 5/16 Allen wrench, and about 15 seconds on a grinder. Total cost in 82, about 45 cents at most, including the electric for the grinder. But then, that's the military. My question is this, where did that money really go, and into what black op was it really sent to.
NASA's entire budget for 2012 is 18 Billion.....Please let me know where you are getting your information or what I am missing.
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/feb/HQ_11-041_NASA_Budget.html
well at least someone was thinking! I used to dream about having a blower on my sb chevy. But then you have seen what most of us only heard about second hand and that was enough bad enough!
As I said in the article, I took the points from an article looking at the 2015 budget which has be cut drastically. I even put a forwarding link in the article....maybe you missed that?
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