Lots of mission cuts and delays

[lycan359]

<br />Ok, something is wrong with this.<br /><br />http://www.space.com/news/050512_nasa_prometheus.html<br /><br />They can't be serious, damn Shuttle...

 

[wvbraun]

Your alternative solution?

 

[lycan359]

<br />My solution?<br /><br />If NASA didn't have the ISS to worry about then they could retire the Shuttle now and there would be nothing to worry about.<br /><br />But they do have the ISS, so there is no solution.

 

[wvbraun]

Exactly, so why is "something wrong" with the cuts and delays? It's the only (realistic) way to deal with the current situation.

 

[lycan359]

<br />Yes, perhaps it is. It still sucks though.

 

[wvbraun]

Agreed (although it seems to be relatively minor stuff to me).

 

[henryhallam]

I'm a bit disappointed about the potential delay of the Mars Science Laboratory - that mission will probably be even more impressive than the highly successful MERs. On the other hand, MER itself was delayed (at least?) two years, and most likely benefited from that delay.

 

[redgryphon]

The MSL delay is not yet confirmed, but there is a growing liklihood of delay even without the budget problems. The entry, descent and landing system fo MSL is a new design (Skycrane) and the development is proving difficult. There is also the risk of of a failure on the 2009 Telecom Orbiter upon which the MSL mission is dependent. NASA may decide to launch MTO in 2009 and MSL in 2011 once MTO is confirmed operational at Mars. On the positive side, there is also a chance NASA will double up like they did with MER, and fly two MSL rovers.

 

[vogon13]

Am I the only one who remembers all the ISS redesigns during the Reagan years that were all done to save money?<br /><br />I would conjecture that every nickle supposedly saved then has cost $100 over the long run. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[najab]

><i>Am I the only one who remembers all the ISS redesigns during the Reagan years that were all done to save money?</i><p>If they had started construction on the Station in 1984 like they were supposed to, it would have cost probably 1/10 of what it has ended up costing. The original Freedom was only supposed to have cost about $4 billion.</p>

 

[wvbraun]

"I would conjecture that every nickle supposedly saved then has cost $100 over the long run."<br /><br />That's why Griffin is trying to make sure that high-priority programs (such as CEV) get full funding and can procedd as planned instead of making across the board cuts which would delay all programs. Maybe you should check out his testimony...

 

[lycan359]

<br />I think that rather then servicing Hubble, the money should go into the Terrestrial Planet Finder mission. Hubble is a great telescope but it's getting about time to let it go.<br /><br />Who knows, in 50 years maybe everyone will remember TPF more then they do Hubble.

 

[spaceiscool]

i agree with lycan. scrap the shuttle and the workers on it. scrap all space flight and lets look for aliens instead of killing astronauts on faulty old ships. lycan is right on.

 

[shuttle_rtf]

Scrap everything and go looking for little green men. That just about sums up the Shuttle Basher argument.

 

[lycan359]

<br />Searching for little green men... I'm sorry?<br /><br />What are you guys talking about?

 

[shuttle_rtf]

What are you? Mr Rhetorical?

 

[lycan359]

<br />No, I want to know why you guys are talking about little green men as nobody even mentioned aliens.<br /><br />As far as I can tell you were refering to TPF, something that looks for Earth like planets orbiting other stars. If you disagree and think it is a waste of resources then fine, lets talk about it but please stop acting like a child.

 

[shuttle_rtf]

This is not the first time you've come across like this.<br /><br />I was replying to Spaceiscool, see the top of the post where it says who one is replying too??? Get off your high horse. Name calling is so pathetic and ironically childish.

 

[lycan359]

<br />You were replying to spaceiscool? I think it's pretty obvious that he was being sarcastic, so I don't see what your reply was trying to say.<br /><br />Oh, and where is this name calling?

 

[spaceiscool]

I wasn't being sarcastic and /* ad hominem deleted */

 

[lycan359]

Then you actually believe we should stop all space flight and just look for aliens?

 

[toymaker]

I think put all the money that went into ISS into Next Generation Telescopes search as Planet Imager or TPF would far more beneficial. <br /><br />Oh and will the cuts delay any of those planned telescopes ?

 

[mrmorris]

<font color="yellow">"...will the cuts delay any of those planned telescopes ? "</font><br /><br />IIRC -- Griffin indicated the money to service Hubble might well come from the TPF-class telescopes and therefore delay them. He indicated that the JWST would *not* be delayed, however.

 

[pyro20]

Does anybody know what's going on with Kepler and LISA? I'm really looking forward to those missions.

 

[toymaker]

"Does anybody know what's going on with Kepler and LISA? I'm really looking forward to those missions "<br /><br />http://images.spaceref.com/news/2005/FY.05.Op.Plan.enclosures.pdf<br /><br />30.2M, Kepler<br />• Final confirmation into implementation phase delayed from December 2004 to April 2005;<br />launch schedule will be delayed and assessed during upcoming budget cycle.<br /><br />5.0M, Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)<br />• Will hold funding to 2004 level. Project cost and schedule impacts are being assessed and<br />will be addressed in the upcoming budget cycle request.<br />•<br />