Does Obama Want to Ground NASA's Next Moon Mission?

[Roon]

Getting into a shouting match with the HR rep is not exactly the best way to land a job. But according to the Orlando Sentinel, that's just what happened last week between NASA administrator Mike Griffin and Lori Garver, a member of Barack Obama's transition team who will help decide if Griffin keeps his post once the President-elect takes office. If the contretemps did occur, it could help doom not only the NASA chief's chances, but the space agency's ambitious plans to get Americans back to the moon.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081212/us_time/08599186604500

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Frankly, the Moon mission cannot be anywhere near the top of the list of

priorities that must be handled quickly and competently by the Obama administration. I cannot endorse the idea of the govt wasting millions, if not billions on sending someone to the moon when millions of people are out of work, losing their homes, standing on food lines, and dropping out of college because they cannot afford it anymore, when the environment is going to hell in a hand basket, and a lot more major problems that affect Americans every day. I cannot even think of all of them right now....

The economy must be highest priority....if that means postponing the next moonshot...so be it.

[robinlynne]

2. Do we care?

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Yeah.

Some of us do, actually.

I think NASA needs to be properly run, not junked. And that includes both manned & unmanned exploration of space as well as Earth science, ALL of which are very important to our collective future imho.

[robinlynne]

16. I would like to end hunger and greenhouse gasses first, personally. and save polar bears.

the moon will still be there in 40 years, when we have the funds for it.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Right, because we've solved all our problems "down here" by cutting NASA's budget.

Never mind the Half Trillion we spend per annum on the Military-Industrial Budget. Never mind the $40 Billion a yr. idiotic "drug war". Sure, if we just ditch all science and exploration, we'll solve all those intractable problems- like hunger- that have eluded us up until now.

Oh, and global warming awareness? Thank Earth Science. Thank NASA.

It's not a Zero Sum game, you know. Progress benefits us all. Science and knowledge of our universe benefits us all. Who knows what potential benefits to mankind there are from exploring the solar system?

Yeah, I know. It's the tiny sliver of the federal budget that goes to NASA- and that alone- which is holding us back from "solving all our problems down here first."

[robinlynne]

26. oh I'm quite ready to cut the military budget right now. As a matter of fact, I would like

to see the 3 trillion "missing" from the pentagon to start with!
And I think NASA could work n greenhouse emissions, so they can keep their jobs, just no need to spend millions on space flights right now.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. I'm with Brklyn on this

How about we take care of our planet first?

[Warren DeMontague]

8. Perhaps if the Chinese start mining lunar Helium-3 for clean fusion power on Earth

and start selling it to us the way OPEC has spent the last several decades with a monopoly on oil, then perhaps the wisdom of not hiding out on our planet, pretending the rest of the universe doesn't exist or matter to us, will become apparent.

[JustAnotherGen]

19. Okay - you have a choice

Health Care for every American or go to the moon?
Hot meals for American children or go to the moon?
Actually EDUCATING our children or go to the moon?
Homeless Veterans or go to the moon?


I'm sick and tired of being held hostage by what some other country 'might do'. Now - I'm a mean Democrat. I'm mean because I think this 'wake up call' for America should also include a wake-up call to China. Resource/Economic war - us against them.


Let them spend every single last cent doing that.

Let half their people starve and the rest weaken.

Then let us roll in there, decimate the people that are left - and take that Helium-3 for ourselves.


See, told ya. I'm a mean Democrat.

[Warren DeMontague]

24. Oh, bullshit. Why don't you start with the Military budget and the drug war budget?

You vastly overrate the NASA budget if you think ditching their bargain basement moon plans will solve hunger or get everyone health care.

[JustAnotherGen]

27. Relax Relax

Bullshit is thinking that these are high times and things are just rolling along in a grand kind of manner.


I just don't give a shit about NASA. We all have our own personal litmus test for who and what counts. And if you don't think NASA is a part of the Military Industrial Complex you are off your rocker.

Do you really think we put up satellites so astronauts can play ring around the rosey and patty cake with each other? :rofl: Wake up man! It's big brother for f*cks sake! :rofl:

[Bill McBlueState]

25. those may all be false choices

Seems like we could probably have both health care for all and a moon mission. What evidence do you have that makes you think we have to choose one or the other?

[JustAnotherGen]

28. What is our deficit?

And how many American people will be employed by this NASA Mission?

[Sex Pistol]

5. I hope not...

Space, the final frontier.

[RedCappedBandit]

17. Truth. nt

[wuushew]

6. There is no need to go to the moon first before undertaking Mars.

None what so ever.

The mission profile for a lunar vs martian mission are very different. Let China go back to the moon.

[silverweb]

7. Oh, right. Like Obama's that kind of petty.

Any changes to NASA's actual programs will be for real reasons, not just because an administrator who's too possessive about his pet projects goes off the deep end.

Of course, if Griffin doesn't work cooperatively with the new administration, he may be separated from those pet projects of his -- but that certainly doesn't mean Obama would postpone or cancel them for spiteful reasons.

I love the way these media clowns do their best to stir up shit.

[Gold Metal Flake]

13. In Aerospace, one does not enter a review meeting and simply say "trust me".

Griffin is hiding something. Don't tell me he does not know how a CDR works.

[silverweb]

20. Of course, but that's not my point.

My point is that NASA and it's programs will not be subject to fits of vengeful pique, such as the current administration is prone to.

Obama may well dump Griffin because of his insubordination, lack of cooperation, and/or some other malfeasance, and I wouldn't blame him.

However, he will judge NASA programs on their own merits and treat them accordingly, not trash them because he doesn't like the administrator.

[Swamp Rat]

9. Bias is clouding his judgement.

He should stick to crunching numbers, and stay out of management and politics in general.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. I always find it fascinating how ape-shit some people get over NASA's tiny budget

when the Military-Industrial Complex gets, what, a half a trillion a year (not including the costs of things like the Iraq war...)

Want to talk about a waste of money? We spend $40 Billion -a YEAR- trying to keep people from smoking pot. Oh, yeah, but NASA... shit, we can't afford THAT! :eyes:

[bigtree]

11. hope so

[exboyfil]

12. Manned missions are very expensive for the payback

but we better consider what it would mean to have a country not friendly to us at the top of the gravity well. Read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

I hope we continue with the unmanned missions which gives us great payback for the expense, but we should think about slowing down or even stopping manned missions in the short term.

[Shiver]

14. Dammit!

Stop fucking around, space jerks! I want friggin' moon bases already!

[tridim]

15. I do too, but I want to make sure the inhabitants will be able to survive first

Radiation from space and the Sun is a guaranteed killer without an atmosphere.

[Shiver]

21. Bah! Stupid reality and science....

*grumbles* ...could be typing this from Moonunit Zappa right now...

[bananas]

18. Ars Technica interviews Keith Cowing

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081212-star-wars-between-nasa-head-and-obama-transition-team.html

<snip>

To get to the source of this apparent bad blood, Ars spoke with Keith Cowing, a former NASA manager who now edits the Web site NASAWatch. The main bone of contention, Cowing told us, is the Bush administration's troubled "Vision for Space Exploration" moon program, which Griffin had been charged with bringing to fruition. "He pretty much threw out what was done before and started from scratch," says Cowing. "He came up with a plan that a lot of people say really wasn't ready for prime time, and he just shoved it down everyone's throat."

There were, admittedly, a few kinks to work out of the program's flagship Ares I rocket. There was the niggling question of whether the ship would actually have enough power to get into orbit. Then there was the possibility that the rocket could shake its crew to pieces like a tuning fork from Hell, which some might call a design flaw.

Somehow, though, the Ares beat out some 30,000 alternative proposals. "By coincidence," says Cowing, "the design that was picked was the one drew on the back of an envelope the day he showed up." Despite "comical" design reviews, says Cowing, Griffin "hugged the program closer. He tried to tell people that it was vetted and reviewed, but nobody really believes it. This Ares rocket has been sucking every drop of moisture from every corner of the agency."

<snip>

[Bill McBlueState]

23. the Moon mission, I'm not so concerned about

What I would like to see is for JWST to have at least half the success of Hubble, and for the Terrestrial Planet Finder to get back on schedule. Space telescopes provide massive scientific payoff per dollar spent.