Obama backs Moon return in NASA budget

[n2doc]

19:06 26 February 2009 by Rachel Courtland

NASA will stay on track to return humans to the Moon by 2020, according to an overview of President Obama's 2010 budget request released on Thursday.

Recently, various groups - including Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin and the space advocacy group the Planetary Society - have called for NASA to send astronauts to new destinations, such as asteroids.

But the budget request backs a plan developed under the Bush administration to retire the space shuttle by 2010 and develop a system to return humans to the Moon by 2020.

However, the document does not specify whether the Moon return will be accomplished by NASA's Constellation programme, which aims to build a crew capsule called Orion and rockets called Ares to replace the shuttle.

Obama's transition team was reported to have raised questions about the programme's Ares rockets, which have been plagued by design concerns that include excess vibrations.

more:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16676-obama-backs-moon-return-in-nasa-budget.html

[Lasher]

1. Nothing about the Mars mission

Might not be a good idea to pursue that one anyway.

[TheWraith]

2. Why do you say that? nt

[Lasher]

3. Due to the complexities of a really long mission like that.

We might not be ready for such a thing and we're already getting a lot out of unmanned Mars missions.

[Codeine]

6. The complexity is precisely why we should do it.

We accomplish nothing when our goals are small and our obstacles easily vaulted.

[n2doc]

4. Frankly the cost is prohibitive right now

Bushco left us in such a mess that it is going to take the next decade digging out of it. If we are lucky.

Unmanned missions to Mars will continue, I am sure. And we will gain a huge amount if information from them.

[Bill McBlueState]

5. USA! USA!

Repeating what we did fifty years ago!

I suppose I'm being overly cynical...

[rcrush]

7. Maybe they can find those moon robots that left those heads on the moon.