[extropy-chat] USA - No Science, No space travel, No money ........

[BillK]

On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 13:34:28 -0500, Bret Kulakovich wrote:
> 
> Crew Exploration Vehicle and Prometheus?
> I heard flight testing for 2008 and 2010 respectively.
> 
> NASA is ordering reactors from the US Navy.
> 
> If getting humans to the orbit of Jupiter in 2 mos. travel time isn't
> doing science, I don't know what is.
> 


Getting humans to Jupiter is engineering, not science. And they don't
'plan' on even getting humans back to the Moon until 2015-2020.

The American Physical Society is the world's largest professional body
of physicists,
representing over 45,000 physicists in academia and industry in the US and 
internationally. For more information: <htp:/www.aps.org>

In Nov 2004 the APS issued a report on how they expected the Moon-Mars
project could seriously damage scientific research. The full pdf file
can be linked to from their home page.

The Press release summary is:-

NASA'S MOON-MARS INITIATIVE JEOPARDIZES IMPORTANT SCIENCE 
OPPORTUNITIES, ACCORDING TO AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY REPORT 
 
Washington, DC - November 22, 2004 - Shifting NASA priorities toward risky, 
expensive missions to the moon and Mars will mean neglecting the most
promising space
science efforts, states the American Physical Society (APS) Special
Committee on NASA
Funding for Astrophysics, in a report released today. 
 
The committee points out that the total cost of NASA's ill-defined
Moon-Mars initiative
is unknown as yet, but is likely to be a substantial drain on NASA
resources. As currently
envisioned, the initiative will rely on human astronauts who will
establish a base on the
moon and subsequently travel to Mars. The program is in contrast to
recent, highly
successful NASA missions, including the Hubble Space telescope, the
Mars Rover, and
Explorer missions, which have revolutionized our understanding of the
universe while
relying on comparatively cheap, unmanned and robotic instruments. It
is likely that such
programs will have to be scaled back or eliminated in the wake of much
more expensive
and dangerous manned space exploration, according to the committee. 
 
The following findings are among the most important points in the APS report: 
 
* The recent spectacular successes of NASA's space telescopes and the
Mars Rovers
amply demonstrate that we can use robotic means to address many
important scientific
questions. 

<snip>


This is the toned-down official view of the APS.
But you can get an awful lot of telescopes and robotic missions for
the money that is going to be thrown at the man in space money pit.

BillK