NASA will test the latest generation of its new Ares moon rocket today, reports USA Today.
The first stage will be tested will be mounted horizontally and while it will be put through a series of tests, it will never leave the ground.
The same may be true for its ever being used to send human beings to the moon, Mars or beyond. Currently, the program is part of former President George W. Bush’s plan to send the United States back to the moon by 2020. The plan was given a budget of $108 billion program, but a current study by the Obama administration indicates that funding may not be enough to the moon. Reports indicate another $30 billion would be needed to achieve that goal.
Some reports indicate that the special independent panel commissioned by President Barack Obama could recommend that we bypass the moon and try to push out to Mars instead. Or there could be a push to head to an asteroid or to explore our solar system with a space flight.
The White House told the panel to aim to stay within current budget estimates.
“If you want to do something, you have to have the money to do it,” said panel member and former astronaut Sally Ride. “This budget is very, very, very hard to fit and still have an exploration program.”
The options that face the White House come down to variations and combinations of these themes: Pay more, do less or radically change American space policy. The most radical idea would be to hand much of NASA’s duties to private companies.
“The problem is the size 14 foot in the size 10 shoe,” said American University public policy professor Howard McCurdy, author of several books about the American space program. “It’s just really hard to fit it all in. A lot of the assumptions made in 2004 (for the Bush plan) have just not materialized.”
The panel will not tell the president which choice to make. That will be up to Obama. Until NASA is told to change course, it will continue with the Bush plan.
Thus, the first big test of moon program hardware is the rocket stage firing Thursday in Promontory, Utah. That test is of the main get-off-the-ground engine in the Ares I rocket. The full test rocket, complete with a dummy crew capsule and escape system, Ares I-X, is supposed to get a launch test at Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 31.
That rocket will be taller than the space shuttle, illustrating an agency eager to launch something new.
“NASA has been like a star athlete that’s broken world records back in the 1960s and is stuck in the bleachers ever since, unable to suit up for what it does best,” said space scientist Alan Stern, who quit last year as NASA’s associate administrator for science.
But, as has been the case since about 1971, money is holding engineers back, Stern said.
“Bush never delivered on his promise to up NASA’s funding,” Stern said. He added that the previous NASA administrator “tried cannibalizing NASA (to pay for exploration) but that wasn’t enough.”
While the Bush administration cut some spending, the “real killer” came in Obama’s first budget, which starts in October, said Scott Pace, the No. 3 at NASA during the Bush administration. Obama cut $3 billion from projections for future spending on exploration, with even more cut when inflation is factored in, said Pace, director of space policy at George Washington University.
The administration gave the agency an extra $400 million, however, as part of the stimulus package.
Former NASA associate administrator Scott Hubbard said if the United States invited other countries, including Russia and perhaps China, on the next space journey, it would keep America’s costs lower. It’s an idea the panel and some in the Obama administration have discussed.
Some kind of change is needed in NASA plans, said Hubbard, a professor at Stanford University: “What we ended up with now is clearly unsustainable.”
Lejon from Chandler says
OK. Rockets are expensive. We get that. Why are we still using rockets? Doesn’t NASA get the news about Space Ship One? Don’t they know we can get into space on a lower budget now?
OK, OK, I’m being too harsh, and I don’t know all the details… But really, still with the rockets?
Jim in California says
Yes, Lejon — you *are* being too harsh — and you certainly *don’t* know all the details.
SpaceShipOne, while an achievement, was a suborbital flight of around Mach 3 that barely crossed the threshold of space; To get to the level of what NASA, Russia, China or other spacefaring nation do, Burt Rutan and his merry band of “NewSpace” dreamers needs to build something capable of going eight times faster (and also slow it down for return). He’s nowhere near that goal — now five years after the event. Jury’s still out on Elon Musk and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and/or Dragon.
The reality is, your Star Trek wishes of matter/anti-matter, or even Ion propulsion is running up against the cold hard realities of science, physics, engineering and more importantly, political will and leadership.
Given the current rate of apathy shown by those like you who have no problem spouting off on your keyboards, but turn into absolute paraplegics when it comes to actually doing something as simple as getting involved in the political process, it’s going to be awhile before intelligent life returns to Earth, let alone Capitol Hill.
Michel Daw says
Ouch Jim, talk about being harsh. We all want the same thing, but I doubt a geek bashing session will get it for us. Thanks for the hard science, but keep the hard – a** for those who deserve it.