Science Eviscerated In NASA Budget, Planetary Society call to action |
Science Eviscerated In NASA Budget, Planetary Society call to action |
Feb 14 2006, 06:27 PM
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
The Planetary Society has issued a call to action, for people to contact House Science Committee Chairman Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) to demand that NASA not cut their 2006 spending on science priorities like Europa before their 2007 budget has even taken effect; and to demand that they reconsider their priorities in the 2007 budget. Go to our Space Advocacy page for more on how to participate in this campaign. Please participate!
--Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Apr 26 2006, 06:49 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 220 Joined: 13-October 05 Member No.: 528 |
I will agree that some missions just cry out for Flagship class. The Europa Orbiter is a good example. There are some things in that mission, such as measuring the tidal flexing of Europa, that simply cannot be done without going into orbit around Europa. And even with only a month in Europa orbit you can get high resolution imagary and data collection over nearly the entire surface.
However, Analyst's comments appeared to make the argument that you just can't do Outer Planets missions without going to the Flagship Class. I doubt that this is what he meant to imply, but I would like to point out that all is not lost. I think the first two New Frontiers missions, New Horizons and JUNO, show that you can go to the Outer Planets for a lot less than Flagship costs. Looking at the relatively conservative JUNO design, I'm not sure a 3-axis stabalized, nuclear powered, Jupiter orbiter is possible under the New Frontiers cost cap, but if it is we still could have a "Flagship-light" mission launch by the middle of the next decade. As I have argued before, we could still move forward quite a lot by a modern instrument suite flying a variation of the Galileo tour. I'll grant you that 3-4 instruments on a New Fronteirs "Galileo 2" would not return nearly what 6-7 instruments on a Europa Orbiter would.... but a real-live New Frontiers-3 is worth a lot more than an endlessly studied, 'we hope it gets funded next-year, or the year after that', Europa Orbiter. Mars Sample Return, anyone? Been studied since the 1980s. And studied. Designed. And then redesigned. Go-it-alone. Partner with the French. Projected for launch in mid-90s. Then projected for the 2005-2007 time period. Then mid 2010s. Latest plan is for launch in 2024. I'll believe it when I see it. |
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Apr 27 2006, 11:13 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 307 Joined: 16-March 05 Member No.: 198 |
Mars Sample Return, anyone? Been studied since the 1980s. And studied. Designed. And then redesigned. Go-it-alone. Partner with the French. Projected for launch in mid-90s. Then projected for the 2005-2007 time period. Then mid 2010s. Latest plan is for launch in 2024. Yes, a MSR mission is looking increasingly like a desert mirage: every time you approach the thing it recedes further off into the distance. I'll believe it when I see it. I notice that 2024 is now within a potentially awkward time frame for unmanned Mars missions. Assuming the VSE proceeds on schedule (a big if) and NASA succeeds in returning manned expeditions to the Moon by the late 2010s then by the 2020s one would it expect it to be preparing for a manned mission to Mars--assuming Mars remains on NASA's manned itinerary. If so then at some point during the 2020s the unmanned Mars program is surely going to be increasingly turned towards supporting the manned one, such as finding potential landing sites. An MSR is really only going to be of use to the manned program if it shows the sampled site to be a potential manned landing site. If its going to require several MSR missions before a site useful to the manned program is found then at some point somebody is surely going to ask what the point is of sending even one and whether the MSR money would not be better spent on other kinds of Mars missions such as more orbiters and/or rovers. ====== Stephen |
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Apr 27 2006, 08:08 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
Stephen:
In another thread I suggested that unmanned MSR is likely to end up being linked to a manned Mars orbit mission. I don't think manned Mars landings are particularly likely in the nearish term, but that a non-landing mission is - and such a mission, if integrated into an unmanned campaign, could actually do many of the things which are really rather difficult for robotic missions (such as returning samples to Earth) while being (almost) economically bearable. Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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