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Obama to End NASA Constellation Program


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#1 Hostile

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 04:42 AM

On the eve of the fullest moon of the year, NASA scientists were told they won't be able to visit any longer. In his new budget, President Obama plans to eliminate the space program's manned moon missions.


Posted Image NASA

Apollo 12 Commander Charles Conrad Jr. examines the unmanned Surveyor III spacecraft during the second extravehicular activity in 1967. The Lunar Module "Intrepid" is in the background.

On the eve of the fullest moon of the year, NASA scientists were told they won't be able to visit any longer. In his new budget, President Obama plans to eliminate the space program's manned moon missions.

When the president releases his budget on Monday, a White House official confirmed on Thursday, there will be a big hole where funding for NASA's Constellation program used to be. Constellation is the umbrella program that includes the Ares rocket -- the replacement for the aging space shuttles.

NASA will receive an additional $5.9 billion over five years, some of which will be used to extend the life of the International Space Station to 2020. The official said it also will be used to entice companies to build private spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the space station after the space shuttle retires.

SLIDESHOW: The Ares Rocket

The story was first reported in the Orlando Sentinel, which detailed that the forthcoming budget will include no funding for lunar landers, no moon bases, and no Constellation program at all. Instead, NASA will outsource space flight to other governments (such as the Russians) and private companies.

NASA's Constellation program aimed to create a new generation of spacecraft for human spaceflight, consisting primarily of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule and the Altair Lunar Lander. These spacecraft would have been capable of performing a variety of missions, from International Space Station resupply to lunar landings.

But according to the Sentinel, White House insiders and agency officials say NASA will eventually look at developing a new "heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit years in the future -- and possibly even decades or more.


In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects -- principally, researching and monitoring climate change


-- and on a new technology research and development program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and the solar system possible.

There will also be funding for private companies to develop capsules and rockets that can be used as space taxis, reports the Sentinel. These companies may take astronauts on fixed-price contracts to and from the International Space Station -- a major change in the way the agency has done business for the past 50 years.

NASA's budget, just over $18.7 billion this year, is still expected to rise again in 2011, reports Space.com, though by much less than the $1 billion increase NASA and its contractors have been privately anticipating since mid-December. A White House-appointed panel, led by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, urged these changes on the administration in December.

The panel also said a worthwhile manned space exploration program would require Obama to budget about $55 billion for human spaceflight over the next five years, some $11 billion more than he included in the 2011-2015 forecast he sent Congress last spring.

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#2 Elvenlord

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 04:46 AM

......What?

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#3 Pasidon

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 05:04 AM

Useless dullard. Barak Obama has done nothing good ever since he was elected. I hate to see my opinion be supported by his own bad actions since it requires him to actually be a bad president.

Also I believed he shut down NASA already. I don't understand this dilemma being considered after that fact.

Edited by {IP}Pasidon, 01 February 2010 - 05:08 AM.


#4 Hostile

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 05:06 AM

Maybe the Chinese, Europeans, or Indians can send us a postcard from the moon? Perhaps? Way to try to keep America in the forefront Obama!

Let me see... go to the moon and establish a moon base for further operations towards Mars or... spend a bunch of money on climate change, not regarding the fact that it's going to change, whatever man does.

If you add up all the money for earmarks and pork barrel spending from the "so called" stimulas bill in addition to the "health care" reform, I bet you could go to Mars and back twice.

Obama, start building nuclear power plan en' masse. Build them in large number, disregarding your left wing enviro-nerds. Make a stand dude. Choose massive human advancement. Shoot for the stars.

China doesn't care about the environment, Russia doesn't care, India doesn't care, most nations outside of Europe don't care. Why should we?

Some scientists, who don't even have a working weather model, and who have been following weather patterns for less than a hundred years, are now convinced that the sky is falling?! Sounds like chicken little and also a great way to control people seeing God is now irrelevant.

Green is the new God. Hmm.. Maybe you can win by marketing "God is Green, and you should be too."

#5 Beowulf

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 05:27 AM

What the fuck does it matter if we go to the moon or not? Save the fucking money and put it to good use somewhere else like the education system so we have fewer idiots leaving high schools. Sheesh.

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#6 Pasidon

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 05:43 AM

Every launch is an advancement to greater technology.

#7 Beowulf

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 05:48 AM

Oh really. What is the last great advancement brought on by space flight?

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#8 Pasidon

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 05:56 AM

ST-5, among other things. Every time we launch, it proved more intelligence on the topic of radiation belts. Fascinating topic to look into.

#9 Vortigern

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 10:53 AM

Until somebody can take me to a different solar system and let me set foot on a new world, I just can't summon up any enthusiasm for the space project. Somebody invent the warp drive already!
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#10 Bart

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 10:56 AM

Sure, space travel and research is very important, but I think the US has/have (which is more correct?) more pressing matters to take care of at the moment.

VORT: 'Has' is correct. 'The US' is a collective noun, grammatically identical to a singular form.
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#11 Romanul

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 11:36 AM

What the fuck does it matter if we go to the moon or not? Save the fucking money and put it to good use somewhere else like the education system so we have fewer idiots leaving high schools. Sheesh.


I have to agree with this.

Plus - what bad reforms?The medical reform?What the fuck?

It has been done so it can be normal,not like what was before.

#12 Hostile

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 04:47 PM

Did anyone actually read this part?

The story was first reported in the Orlando Sentinel, which detailed that the forthcoming budget will include no funding for lunar landers, no moon bases, and no Constellation program at all. Instead, NASA will outsource space flight to other governments (such as the Russians) and private companies.

NASA's Constellation program aimed to create a new generation of spacecraft for human spaceflight, consisting primarily of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule and the Altair Lunar Lander. These spacecraft would have been capable of performing a variety of missions, from International Space Station resupply to lunar landings.

But according to the Sentinel, White House insiders and agency officials say NASA will eventually look at developing a new "heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit years in the future -- and possibly even decades or more.


The shuttle is being retired at the end of this year. So how will the US do manner space flight? Outsource it to the Russians! How brilliant is that.

Beo has NO clue how much of his everyday life is the result of the space program. Here some references for you.
http://www.thespacep...a/spinoffs.html
http://english.peopl...76/6507143.html
http://in.answers.ya...05103629AAb01HB
http://www.dcourier....articleID=54483

And the list of resources goes on. Obama isn't going to waste the money on education, read the below quote from the article!

In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects -- principally, researching and monitoring climate change

What?! Monitoring climate change. :p

#13 Puppeteer

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 06:26 PM

What the fuck does it matter if we go to the moon or not? Save the fucking money and put it to good use somewhere else like the education system so we have fewer idiots leaving high schools. Sheesh.

Precisely my thoughts! You've been to the moon more than once, get over it. You're not going to establish a space-base on there any time soon, Hostile, don't kid yourself. The money poured down the gargantuan abyss of NASA could be used elsewhere for more important matters. Climate change is definitely important - whether you consider Global Warming to be predominantly provoked by mankind is immaterial to this.
And who the fuck cares who gets to the moon for the seventh time? Only jingoistic bigots unable to comprehend the idea that it would be in aid of human progression, not national progression, if that were even the caes. If the argument that space travel encourages better technology, which is hardly efficient for the money sunk into their programmes, then let the Indians/Russians/Chinese get there. You don't have to monopolise on it.

#14 Nertea

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 07:43 PM

Constellation was an outdated, poorly planned project anyways. Obsolete before it began, I heard some engineer say when they flew than test booster a while back. Still, it's kinda sad that all that dev money has gone to waste now.

Tech will continue to advance though. Earth-observing space stuff is nothing to be scoffed at - it's a field which is commercially driven for the most part, so won't be affected by this particularly significantly. All the space tech potential that is actually lost is the stuff that is related solely to humans flying about in zero g. Most if not all of the advanced robotics, propulsion and the like will continue to get developed.

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#15 Pasidon

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 08:21 PM

But to a slower degree without regular tests that need done every occasion. NASA has very good reasons to visit the moon still.

#16 Romanul

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 08:30 PM

Well,bother telling us those reasons?

#17 Ash

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 08:42 PM

Did anyone actually read this part?

The story was first reported in the Orlando Sentinel, which detailed that the forthcoming budget will include no funding for lunar landers, no moon bases, and no Constellation program at all. Instead, NASA will outsource space flight to other governments (such as the Russians) and private companies.

NASA's Constellation program aimed to create a new generation of spacecraft for human spaceflight, consisting primarily of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule and the Altair Lunar Lander. These spacecraft would have been capable of performing a variety of missions, from International Space Station resupply to lunar landings.

But according to the Sentinel, White House insiders and agency officials say NASA will eventually look at developing a new "heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit years in the future -- and possibly even decades or more.


The shuttle is being retired at the end of this year. So how will the US do manner space flight? Outsource it to the Russians! How brilliant is that.

Allow me to translate this section into 'regular American bigot', for the average user:

"Would it kill you to buy American?"

The space programmes of this planet are a total waste of money. Shall we sort out the many problems on this planet, such as poverty, famine, next-generation power and propulsion to go to sustainable sources (no, I'm not going on about climate change, I'm just going with the fact that the oil is actually going to run out one day)

And the list of resources goes on. Obama isn't going to waste the money on education, read the below quote from the article!

Right. Because pouring money into education would be wasting it. I know you fully believe we should just go out of our way and do our utmost to spew as much pollutants into the air and make it as totally unbreathable as we can, but I for one would like to remain able to go outside without a mask. I'm not saying that climate change is quite the big hoo-haa that the media makes it out to be, but I'd still like our civilisation to be less wasteful, destructive and aggressive. I'm not saying it'll make too much difference necessarily, but what harm is there in putting money into more sustainable and renewable ways of doing things, if only to maintain our air quality? Just...don't fund it with taxpayer's money so much. Businesses can easily profit by it, rather than having 'climate tax' instigated, as in the UK.

What the fuck does it matter if we go to the moon or not? Save the fucking money and put it to good use somewhere else like the education system so we have fewer idiots leaving high schools. Sheesh.

QFT.

Precisely my thoughts! You've been to the moon more than once, get over it. You're not going to establish a space-base on there any time soon, Hostile, don't kid yourself. The money poured down the gargantuan abyss of NASA could be used elsewhere for more important matters. Climate change is definitely important - whether you consider Global Warming to be predominantly provoked by mankind is immaterial to this.

That is a point. Whatever you say, Hostile, if the ice caps melt we're fucked unless we do some work to limit the damage. Even if that limitation amounts to 'build flood defences around vulnerable coastlines'.


But to a slower degree without regular tests that need done every occasion. NASA has very good reasons to visit the moon still.

Name one. I can't think of any. It's a ball of fucking rock and dust. It's as big a waste of money, time, effort and expense than trying to get to the bottom of the sea. There's fuck all there, and what is there has little or no relevance to what we have where we currently are.

I can see benefits for having this sort of stuff, but let's worry about it when we've solved a bunch of other problems, firstly the total shitstorm our society has ended up in thanks to our worthless, bafflingly corrupt politicians and their friends the banking bosses. Then work on nuclear disarmament, an end to totalitarianism and the Big Brother state (this includes Britain), world poverty and hunger, sustainable energy, habitat protection/restoration, global overpopulation, world unification, etc. Once we've sorted out the problems on this planet can we realistically worry about finding out about other worlds.

#18 Lauri

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 09:38 PM

That is a point. Whatever you say, Hostile, if the ice caps melt we're fucked unless we do some work to limit the damage. Even if that limitation amounts to 'build flood defences around vulnerable coastlines'.

I'd rather see more advancing in the space program and stuff, so than when the ice melts, we'll be able to fly to another solar system and settle on another planet.. or planets... We just need to find those mass relays, and we're set..

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#19 Pasidon

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 09:43 PM

I will list the reasonings:
-The development of ST-5 through the study of radiation belts being the most important by my opinion. If we understand radiation belts, then we can learn how to use the earth's gravitational force to propel aeronautic vessels further through space. More is learned from radiation belts every manned launch.
-The moon bases set up require much human maintaining and resources that can only be obtained by regular lunar visits.
-There is a different factor input into every launch, therefore every launch is an experiment. We would not know all that we do about propulsion systems in this age if we didn't frequently launch vessels.
-Before we can go to other worlds, we would need to launch off from orbit in the first place. Yet the laboratories designed for this function that are currently in orbit are not yet completed. It would be wise to do regular launches if you wish to see it done in your lifetime.

#20 Puppeteer

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Posted 01 February 2010 - 09:55 PM

-The development of ST-5 through the study of radiation belts being the most important by my opinion. If we understand radiation belts, then we can learn how to use the earth's gravitational force to propel aeronautic vessels further through space. More is learned from radiation belts every manned launch.

So the benefit of space travel is... better space travel. Well, that's me convinced then, thanks.




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