[FPSPACE] NASA cuts global warming research and Lunar mission to send yet...[Scanned by MAIL]

[Matula, Thomas L.]

David,

A 1.7 Billion dollar Mars rover is not a big expense? Gee, I hate to think what you feel a big expensive Mars program is... 

Yes, unforunately because of NASA's Mars fixation, and the only place its really popular, U.S. researchers will have to beg rides on foreign lunar missions to do important and critical lunar research. 

And missions crtical to human survival like Global Warming and NEO's will continue to be neglected. Which is why they needed to be taken from NASA and given to agencies that will give the high priority they deserve.

Tom


-----Original Message-----
From: DSFPortree at aol.com [mailto:DSFPortree at aol.com]
Sent: Sat 4/7/2007 9:00 AM
To: Matula, Thomas L.; FPSPACE at friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] NASA cuts global warming research and Lunar mission to send yet...[Scanned by MAIL]
 
Tom:

Provocative post, but not grounded in reality. The Mars Program has been cut 
and cut - MSL is really all that's left. Mars is politically popular, 
scientifically interesting, and culturally relevant. NASA couldn't very well abandon 
MSL at this stage.  

Guess what - I expect the Mars Program will be at least partly restored as 
NASA turns away from the moon in the next couple of years. Looking for life on 
Mars is a cheap way for the U.S. to do things in space that Americans and 
people around the world see as relevant.

The lunar lander would be a fun thing, but Griffin says it's not entirely 
required, which seems to be accurate. Of course, the same can be said for the 
entire lunar program.

It is unfortunate about the Earth obs cuts. However, blaming the Mars Program 
is like blaming NASA aeronautics, or like blaming school lunch programs for 
the Federal deficit. The Mars Program just isn't that big. Why not look for 
scapegoats among the programs that dominate the budget, not the incidental 
programs?

David


David S. F. Portree
author & educator
dsfportree at aol.com
(928) 226-1427
Flagstaff Arizona USA

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"It's like when you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world's 
turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's 
standing still. I can feel it - the turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our 
feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, the entire planet is hurtling 
around the Sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're 
falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little 
world, and if we let go..." - The Ninth Doctor








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