[FPSPACE] Possible Death of the USA's plan to return to the Moon[Scanned by MAIL]

[Matula, Thomas L.]

Hi Keith,

This is just the NASA equilvalent of the Department of Interior threatening to close the national parks when they don't get full funding, i.e. stories to rally the support base.

It is also a good excuse for Dr. Griffin to get rid some of the dead weight NASA has picked up over the years and focus its mission narrowly on its target of returning to the Moon, which he has been wanting to do since he was made Administrator. For example much of the Earth Study could be trnsferred to NOAA  where it should have been all along. Other projects not on the critical path for VSE could be eliminated as well.

http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_space_story.jsp?id=news/GRIF0117.xml
 Griffin Says NASA Will Protect CEV, Station Against Flat-Budget Squeeze
By Frank Morring, Jr./Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
01/11/2007 09:08:43 AM

[[[NASA will trim from the bottom to accommodate a half-billion-dollar hole in its expected funding this year, halting or shrinking low-priority programs to keep top-dollar efforts like the Orion crew exploration vehicle and International Space Station assembly on track.]]]

and

[[["I will do everything I can to keep Orion and Ares I on schedule," he says. "That will be right behind keeping shuttle and station on track, and then after that we'll fill up the bucket with our other priorities."]]]

Basically it will be done using the noise level, if there is a lot of noise from  Congress a program will stay, if not, then it will be eliminated. 

Thomas Matula





-----Original Message-----
From: fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org on behalf of Keith Gottschalk
Sent: Mon 1/15/2007 8:52 AM
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org; pjp
Subject: [FPSPACE] Possible Death of the USA's plan to return to the Moon[Scanned by MAIL]
 
>>> "pjp" <pjp961 at svol.net> 01/15/07 4:25 PM >>>
>What makes a program viable?  Do Power Point presentations with sound
>effects?
>Or is it.
>The concrete poured, the steel and aluminum milled and cut, the
man-hours
>paid in direct consequence of work on the project, and the money
invested?

   No, none of those.
   One thing & one thing only:
- the political will of those with power to secure & sustain a
multi-year budget.

  Since Dwayne Day went into suspended animation on FPSPACE (but not in
Spaceflight :) 
I might be the only FPSPAC-er with a professional qualification as a
political scientist.
Vietnam killed Apollo in middle age.
Will Iraq will abort Ares / Orion before birth?
I'm not a specialist in US politics, so you guys had better lobby over
there across the pond  :)

   Nationalist pride seems to be making China raise a budget towards
unmanned lunar exploration, with India slowly following in its
footsteps. Maybe if either of them get as far as a space station in
lunar orbit, with lots of robotic lunar rovers, the budget tap might
re-open in Washington D.C. 2017?  2027? We of course also need to watch
actual commitment of budget by the two Asian giants each year.

   Was George Bush (Senior) speech "Back to the Moon, this time to
stay" about 1993?

Keith