|
This page is all about the latest news on the subject of space exploration
and the enormous price tags that come with those projects. The obsolescense
and pointlessness of NASA's manned space flight program is covered on
this page, but
NASA's other make-work projects are highlighted below. In addition, there are links
to other articles with derogatory commentary about NASA's pointless goals and colossal cost. These space exploration projects have very few tangible end products — certainly nothing that benefits the average taxpayer. The exploration of other planets (or any other space flight) is not authorized by the Constitution and is not the proper role of government. The exception would be military projects in support of our national defense, but the Pentagon has its own aerospace facilities. Yes, I know NASA's projects are the highest of high tech. I'm not saying space flight research isn't cool, but spending taxpayers' money on it is illegal. The Constitution defines the limits of our government, and NASA operates outside those limits. The work being done by NASA should (according to the 10th Amendment) be conducted by private industries, and of course no private company could afford to spend billions of dollars per year on pointless experiments in zero-g. As the shuttle Atlantis landed in Florida recently I noticed that NASA called the flight a "mission to expand the global village of space." Look at the numbers: NASA's Budget Appropriations for 2007 and Projections for 2008 to 2012. Ambitious NASA Probe to Fly Through Sun's Fringe. Spurred to action by Congress, NASA is finally moving out on an ambitious mission to send a spacecraft closer to the sun than any has ever gone before. NASA directed the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) to begin preliminary work on a proposed $750 million Solar Probe mission last month, with plans to launch around 2015 to fly through the sun's corona and study the stream of charged particles it regularly blasts into space. 1.5 billion dollars down the drain. The Device NASA Is Leaving Behind: The instrument, which would detect and measure cosmic rays in a new way, took 500 physicists from around the world 12 years to build. But with room on the 10 remaining shuttle missions to the space station in short supply, many fear that it will remain forever warehoused on Earth, becoming the most sophisticated and costly white elephant of the space era. Phoenix Mars Lander Prepares For Final Countdown. [Scroll down] It will be for the first time when a Mars mission reaches so far north, with the clear purpose of determining whether the Red Planet is a setting for past or future forms of life. The Mars Lander will examine the soil in place at the surface, at the icy layer and in between, and will take samples for analysis. [No mention of the price tag.] Mars Phoenix to try shake-and-bake once more. In a series of maneuvers that sounds more like cooking class than research on Mars, scientists said Monday [6/9/2008] they would try one more time to shake bits of the clumpy Martian soil into a test oven on NASA's Phoenix lander before switching to a backup strategy that called for dribbling the soil into the oven. ... The Martian soil is proving to be much clumpier — cemented, in scientific terms — than expected. Alkaline Soil Sample From Mars Reveals Presence of Nutrients. Stick an asparagus plant in a pot full of Martian soil, and the asparagus might grow happily, scientists announced Thursday [6/26/2008]. An experiment on the Phoenix Mars lander showed the dirt on the planet's northern arctic plains to be alkaline, though not strongly alkaline, and full of the mineral nutrients that a plant would need. Mars Phoenix lander finds soil similar to that in backyards on Earth. The Phoenix lander's first taste test of soil near Mars' north pole reveals a briny environment similar to what can be found in backyards on Earth, [emphasis added] scientists said today in Los Angeles. The finding raises hope that the Martian arctic plains could have conditions favorable for primitive life. The Editor says... "Similar?" I don't think so. The soil in my back yard is full of last year's grass and a bunch of spiders, ants, snails, worms, and the decaying excrement of every dog that has ever lived here. It could very well be that all the scientists have found — after spending billions of our tax dollars — is slightly alkaline dirt (or dust) and sterile water. Will NASA Ever Find Life on Mars? NASA has long taken an incremental approach to searching for biology, with "follow the water" as a driving strategy. That means, perhaps to the frustration of some, that the current Phoenix lander mission and the twin rovers on Mars are not even designed to detect Martian life. The Editor says... Why the "incremental approach"? Money, obviously. Once NASA finds Clue #1 and Clue #2, it just has to send another billion-dollar probe to find Clue #3. Court nixes NASA background checks. A federal appeals court ruled Friday [1/11/2008] that NASA should be blocked from conducting background checks on low-risk employees at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, saying the practice threatens workers' constitutional rights. NASA Wary of Relying on Russia. The launch of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) … highlights a stark reality: In 2½ years, just as the station gets fully assembled, the United States will no longer have any spacecraft of its own capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the station, in which roughly $100 billion is being invested. The Editor says... The logic behind NASA's concern escapes me. Apparently the justification for squandering more money is the fact that We have invested $100 billion in the space station already. That's like finding out that you're on a dead end road and refusing to turn around because you've gone so far already. First View of Mercury's "Other Face". The first of many planned images from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is showing astronomers a side of Mercury no one's ever seen before. Mercury is tough to view from Earth, since it's so close to the sun. And when the Mariner 10 probe flew past the innermost planet in 1974 and 1975, only one side of the body was facing sunlight. [The article includes no mention of the price tag for these pictures, nor any explanation of how these new pictures benefit the taxpayers.] Nasa investigates virtual space. The US space agency is exploring the possibility of developing a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. The virtual world would be aimed at students and would "simulate real Nasa engineering and science missions". At last — something important! Boomerangs come back in space, Japanese astronaut finds. Japanese astronaut Takao Doi has thrown a boomerang in space and found, to the surprise of many, that it does come back. The 53-year-old conducted an experiment aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday [3/18/2008], Japanese time, to see whether boomerangs fly back in space. Scientists aim for origami space flight. Japanese scientists and origami masters hope to launch a paper airplane from space and learn from its trip back to Earth. It's no joke. A prototype passed a durability test in a wind tunnel this month, Japan's space agency adopted it Wednesday [3/26/2008] for feasibility studies, and a well-known astronaut is interested in participating. The Editor says... It is comical and somewhat surreal to see well-educated men undertake these studies as if the answers were urgently needed. Let's go to Mars, says Nicolas Sarkozy. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has called for the world to unite to explore Mars. Speaking during a visit to French Guaiana, Mr Sarkozy called for a coalition of the willing from Europe, America, Russia and beyond to explore the red planet. The Editor says... The Socialist Sarkozy is merely looking for a handout from the U.S. In other words, if there is to be a trillion dollars spent on a trip to Mars, he wants France to climb aboard the gravy train. Secrets of 1957 Sputnik launch revealed. 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age. 
World magazine, September 22, 2007. NASA Awards $1.8 Billion for Moon Mission Motor. NASA has awarded defense contractor Alliant Techsystems Inc. $1.8 billion to develop a motor for the Orion capsule, which will replace the space shuttle and be able to reach the moon and Mars, the company said. NASA Presents Details of Plans for Moon Base. NASA announced new details yesterday [9/20/2007] about its plans for a Moon base that included a pair of small, pressurized rovers with a range of nearly 600 miles. The space agency plans to return astronauts to the Moon around 2020. Agency officials first described proposals last December for a polar lunar base powered by near constant sunlight on solar panels. How many probes must we send to Mars to prove a negative? NASA Sends Robotic Lander In Search Of Water And Life On Mars. A US space probe embarked Saturday [8/4/2007] on a 10 month journey to Mars, where it will dig through Martian soil in a search for signs of life in a frigid region of the Red Planet. We can't all go to the moon, but our names can. NASA has established a free "Send Your Name to the Moon" Web site that "enables everyone to participate in the lunar adventure and place their names in orbit around the moon for years to come," according to the space agency. Phoenix lander blasts off to Mars. NASA's Phoenix Mars lander blasted off on Saturday on a mission to determine whether icy ground near the planet's north pole could ever have supported life. The mission launched at 0526 EDT (0926 GMT) on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, US. [The article includes no mention of the price.] Where are the PETA people? NASA, Russia To Study Effects Of Spaceflight On Small Lizards, Snails. According to NASA, the Russian Foton-M3 mission will launch from Kazakhstan this Friday [9/14/2007], sending an automated Vostok spacecraft — a heavily modified version of the same basic spaceship that carried Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961 — into low Earth orbit for 12 days. Instead of a human astronaut, however, the small craft will hold several geckos, newts, and snails. [And again, the article includes no mention of the pricetag.] Just another government cover-up... NASA won't disclose survey of pilots on air safety. An unprecedented national survey of pilots by the U.S. government has found that safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than previously recognized. But the government is withholding the information, fearful it would upset air travelers and hurt airline profits. NASA won't disclose air safety survey. NASA gathered the information under an $8.5 million safety project, through telephone interviews with roughly 24,000 commercial and general aviation pilots over nearly four years. Since ending the interviews at the beginning of 2005 and shutting down the project completely more than one year ago, the space agency has refused to divulge the results publicly. NASA Won't Disclose Air Safety Survey. Among other results, the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as other government monitoring systems show, according to a person familiar with the results who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. The survey also revealed higher-than-expected numbers of pilots who experienced "in-close approach changes" — potentially dangerous, last-minute instructions to alter landing plans. [Since when is NASA in charge of airline safety? Isn't that the function of the FAA?] Update: NASA reluctantly releases airline safety study. NASA begrudgingly released some results today from an $11.3 million federal air safety study it previously withheld from the public over concerns it would upset travelers and hurt airline profits. It published the findings in a format that made it cumbersome for any thorough analysis by outsiders. [If you wanted to avoid news media coverage, what better time to release such a study than New Year's Eve?] NASA again postpones the launch of Atlantis. NASA was forced to postpone the scheduled Jan. 10 launch of shuttle Atlantis so flight engineers can fix the problematic fuel tank sensor system on the shuttle. ... Even though the shuttle launch is indefinitely delayed, NASA declined to comment on possible future launch dates. NASA'S Luxury, At Your Expense. [Scroll down] The awards are to honor workers who've contributed to flight safety. But it's not just a low-key dinner for a handful of the best and brightest. Try five days and four nights at a luxury Florida hotel for 300 honorees and their guest. (sic) Fancy receptions and front-row tickets to the most exciting show in the space business, the shuttle launch. All paid for by your tax dollars. NASA gives Google founders a coveted parking place for their private jet. [NASA] confirmed earlier this week that H211, a limited liability company that counts Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, as one of its principals, had secured rights to operate a refurbished wide-body Boeing 767-200 out of Moffett Field, an airport that is run by NASA and is generally closed to private aircraft. Drunk astronauts allowed to fly, admits panel. A panel has found that astronauts were allowed to fly on at least two occasions despite warnings they were so drunk they posed a flight risk, Aviation Week reported today on its website. The publication said the panel set up by NASA to study astronaut health issues reported "heavy use of alcohol" within 12 hours of launch. It said flight surgeons and other astronauts warned that the drunken astronauts posed a flight risk when they flew on the two known occasions. NASA's hangover won't easily go away. NASA plans to overhaul the way it monitors the behavioral and mental health of its astronauts following findings that shuttle astronauts in at least two instances were launched into space despite warnings that they posed a safety risk by being intoxicated. Update: NASA to begin drug testing for astronauts. After finding no evidence of astronauts drinking before launching into space, NASA said Wednesday [8/29/2007] it is considering limited alcohol testing of its employees, including astronauts. Russia Denies Report Astronauts Flew on Space Shuttle Drunk. Russia's space agency denied Saturday that an astronaut could have flown drunk aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from its Baikonur cosmodrome, reacting to allegations reported by the chairman of an independent U.S. panel on astronaut health. Amid NASA turbulence, Congress stays on board. With NASA pushing ahead with plans for exploring the moon and Mars, administrator Michael Griffin acknowledged last week that scandals and reports of astronaut misconduct have "shaken public confidence" in his agency. Congress, however, is standing by NASA, ignoring a veto threat in an attempt to fund space endeavors with more money than President Bush's $17.3 billion request for the 2008 fiscal year. NASA Reports Sabotage of Flight Computer. A space program worker deliberately damaged a computer that is supposed to fly aboard shuttle Endeavour in less than two weeks, an act of sabotage that was caught before the equipment was loaded onto the spaceship, NASA said Thursday [7/26/2007]. Muslim astronaut given guidelines. Malaysia's first astronaut will blast off into space next month armed with guidelines from Muslim authorities on how to pray, wash and even be buried in space. Guidebook issued for Muslims in space. Malaysia has come up with the world's first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space as its first astronaut prepares to go into orbit next week. The book, Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites at the International Space Station, teaches the Muslim astronaut how to perform ablutions, determine the location of Mecca when praying, prayer times, and how to fast in space, the Star newspaper reported. NASA Buys $19 Million Toilet System. NASA has agreed to pay $19 million for a Russian-built toilet system for the international space station. The figure may sound astronomical for a toilet in space, but NASA officials said it was cheaper than building their own. "It's akin to building a municipal treatment center on Earth," NASA spokeswoman Lynnette Madison said Thursday, explaining the cost of the new toilet system. The Editor says... Yes, "it's akin to building a municipal treatment center" for the exclusive use of four or five people. Spacecraft to examine massive asteroids. The US spacecraft Dawn, due to launch on Sunday [7/8/2007], will take a close look at two massive asteroids to try to penetrate the mystery of our solar system's origins 4.6 billion years ago. By examining the two celestial bodies Ceres and Vesta in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, scientists hope the unmanned Dawn probe will shed light on the earliest moments in the birth of the solar system. NASA set to launch "Dawn" asteroid spacecraft. NASA is ready to launch this weekend a spacecraft that will search for clues about the solar system while traveling to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter for a rendezvous with two of its largest asteroids. … Dawn is set to blast off Sunday afternoon from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a Delta II rocket. The launch caps a tumultuous effort in which the $344 million mission was killed last year because of cost overruns and technical problems, then brought back online after NASA appeals. This is no longer news, but it is instructive... Shuttle return may be delayed. Russian computers that control the international space station's orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle's mission — or cutting it short. Russian engineers are not sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station. Last try for space station computer reboot. Space officials said it was so-called secondary power sources that had failed, rather than the German-built computers themselves or the Russian software that they run on. The Editor says... With all the billions of American taxpayer dollars that have been poured into the Space Station, why is it held in place with German computers running Russian software? Update: Internal NASA Reports Explain Origins of June Computer Crisis. The technological — and diplomatic — lessons of that crisis need to be fully understood and appreciated. Because if the failure had occurred on the way to Mars, say, it probably would have been fatal, and it will likely be the same international partnership that builds the hardware for a future Mars mission. NASA paid $26.6M to Columbia families. NASA paid $26.6 million to the families of seven astronauts who died aboard space shuttle Columbia — a settlement that has been kept secret for more than 2½ years. The space agency recruited former FBI Director William Webster, also a former federal judge, to act as a mediator and adviser in negotiating the out-of-court settlements, according to documents released to the Orlando Sentinel through a federal Freedom of Information Act request. Columbia's Sacrifice: On February 1, 2003 the Space Shuttle OV-102 Columbia broke apart during reentry and took with it the lives of seven astronauts. The resulting debris field spread across several states and possibly a portion of the Pacific Ocean as well. This tragedy left not only an extended debris field and grieving families, but also left many questions in the minds of those who witnessed it in person as well as on TV. As a mechanical engineer with an aerospace background, I believe that there are aspects of the events that took place between 8:45 and 9:00 a.m. EST on February 1st that do not appear to fit the theories NASA is currently making public. Neither damaged tiles, missing tiles, or a breach of the shuttles wing itself adequately explain the chain of events that led to the final catastrophic breakup of the orbiter. As far as why the Columbia was destroyed any analysis or comments regarding politics is outside the scope of this website and anything written here is pure conjecture. It is very difficult to believe that anyone in our government would willingly give an order to murder seven astronauts and destroy a space shuttle. It would be far easier to believe that Columbia's destruction was simply a terrible accident. Either a test of the HAARP transmitter was being conducted without the knowledge that a Space Shuttle was reentering the atmosphere or the Columbia was part of a test that went terribly wrong. … The reason for the cover-up is probably to keep the capabilities of the HAARP system secret.* NASA Ponders Death, Sex On Mars Mission. With NASA planning to land on Mars 30 years from now, and with the recent discovery of the most "Earth-like" planet ever seen outside the solar system, the space agency has begun to ponder some of the thorny practical and ethical questions posed by deep space exploration. Rover discovery supports idea life was possible on Mars: NASA. A soil analysis by the Mars rover Spirit strongly suggests that the Red Planet was once wet, providing evidence of conditions that might have supported life, NASA scientists said Monday. Spirit found soil that is rich in silica, and "the processes that could have produced such a concentrated deposit of silica require the presence of water," it said in a release. US achieves autonomous docking in space. Two free-flying satellites performed the first autonomous separation and docking for the US on 5 and 6 May. The test was done without any human intervention as the craft flew nearly 500 kilometres above the planet, and could one day lead to robotic spacecraft that are able to repair damaged satellites. On to Mars! The current American space program has clearly reached a dead end. The construction and maintenance of a space station, and its regular resupply by space shuttles, have been remarkable achievements, albeit costly ones in both lives and treasure. But the landing of men on the moon in 1969 and a few subsequent years were the last really historic steps that NASA took, and the experiments recently devised by high-school students to occupy the time of astronauts in the space shuttles are little more than insults to the human intelligence. US military wants $10m space-weapon funding. The US Missile Defense Agency wants $10 million to investigate space-based weapons over the next year. As Pentagon budgets go, it is small change, but it is also a red flag for critics who worry that such plans could turn space into a shooting gallery. Satellite to probe mysterious glowing clouds. NASA is about to launch a spacecraft to study mysterious invaders lurking above Earth's poles -- not UFOs, but the shimmering, high-altitude apparitions known as noctilucent clouds. NASA Releases 3D Images of Sun. NASA released the first three-dimensional images of the sun Monday [4/23/2007], saying the photos taken from twin spacecraft may lead to better predictions of solar eruptions that can affect communications and power lines on Earth. [Better predictions? Will it make any difference if we get another 24 hours notice of such an event? There's still nothing we can do about solar eruptions when they happen. NASA is one of the few places where people never weigh the cost of new projects versus the benefits, because the greatest benefit is NASA's continued existence.] Russians accuse US of sabotaging satellite during missile tests. According to one unnamed space official quoted by the Russian Interfax news agency, communications were lost with the Russian satellite on 9 March just as the US was carrying out missile experiments. A second Russian specialist, also unnamed, gave a different rationale, arguing it was affected by ground-based tests to knock out spacecraft through wave experiments. As if the US owns the moon... The Moon opens for business. The first private Moon landing has finally been given the green light by the US government. NASA: China could be next to go to the moon. China's surging space program could launch explorers on the moon before Americans make a lunar return, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told a congressional oversight panel Thursday. … That prompted a round of questions from Rep Ken Calvert, R-Calif., on whether the United States might lose its lead in space to China. "How good is their space program? … Do you think they have an opportunity to get to the moon before we do?" Calvert asked. [Why should we care if China goes to the moon? Is there any justification for a space race in the absence of a Cold War?] NASA being shortchanged, congressman charges. The chairman of the U.S. House science committee said Thursday [3/15/2007] that NASA is headed for "a train wreck" if the space agency isn't better funded to finish building the international space station and develop the next-generation spacecraft. [They act as if there is some grave danger to us all if the space station is not maintained and expanded.] A waste of space. [The International Space Station is] little more than an updated MIR where scientists can float around and study the effects of zero gravity. Its major reason for existing seems to be to give the shuttle fleet a destination. And, in a nice circle of reasoning, the shuttles exist to service an international space station. How convenient. Cosmonaut to Hit Golf Ball Into Orbit. A Russian cosmonaut will whack a golf ball from the international space station in a publicity stunt on Thanksgiving Day, NASA officials said Tuesday [8/22/2006]. Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin will show off his swing to promote a Canadian golf club manufacturer during a spacewalk on November 23. [At last we know what the Space Station is good for.] Lockheed Martin wins NASA moon contract. NASA on Thursday [8/31/2006] gave a multibillion-dollar contract to build a manned lunar spaceship to Lockheed Martin Corp., the aerospace leader that usually builds unmanned rockets. The nation's space agency plans to use the Orion crew exploration vehicle to replace the space shuttle fleet, take astronauts to the moon and perhaps to Mars. Unlike Apollo and earlier spacecraft perched atop rockets, it will be reusable. NASA estimated the cost at $7.5 billion through 2019 for likely eight separate spaceships. Nasa looks to a new frontier by building telescope on the Moon. The most powerful radiotelescope yet devised is to be built on the Moon, under plans being put together by Nasa for its 2018 lunar mission. Mike Griffin, the head of the US space agency, said the construction of a telescope is being "factored into" the mission. [What is the end product? More research into the origins of the universe, no doubt. No mention of the price tag, as usual. NASA is pretty obviously struggling to come up with new ways to spend the taxpayers' money.] NASA crushes lunar real estate industry. NASA has confirmed its moon base will not illegally occupy other people's land. The news deals a crushing blow to the dreams of thousands of idiots, who coughed the cash for their very own patch of dusty countryside on the moon. NASA announced earlier this week it would start building a permanent lunar outpost in 2020. NASA to review process of screening astronauts. NASA said today [2/7/2007] it would review its psychological screening process in light of an astronaut's arrest on charges she tried to murder a woman she believed was her romantic rival for the affection of Discovery astronaut William Oefelein. Spacecraft will hunt for planets. [William Borucki's] proposal was rejected four times by NASA. Then other delays and budget cuts threatened to scuttle the $500 million effort before it reached the launch pad. But persistence is paying off for Borucki, 68. The Kepler space telescope is under construction at Ball Aerospace & Technologies in Boulder, with launch set for November 2008. NASA Studies Manned Asteroid Mission. NASA is appraising a human mission to a near-Earth asteroid-gauging the scientific merit of the endeavor while testing out spacecraft gear, as well as mastering techniques that could prove useful if a space rock ever took aim for our planet. NASA's Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet. From 2002 until this year, NASA's mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: "To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers … as only NASA can." In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet" deleted. For $35M, You Too Can Walk in Space. You don't have to be an astronaut anymore to experience walking in space. All you need is $35 million and the willingness to risk your life. A private Virginia firm that already has sent three super-rich men to the international space station for $20 million each announced Friday [7/22/2006] it would offer an even rarer adventure: A stroll outside the space station for an extra $15 million. Nixon was ready to report NASA deaths. The US was so eager to beat the Soviet Union in the race to the moon that it launched its 1969 mission before it was ready, and president Richard Nixon even prepared an address to announce the deaths of the astronauts aboard, a new documentary says. It's time to go beyond the shuttle. The hesitance about the coming launch among members of the NASA team responsible for mission safety is alarming. So was the apparent "reassignment" of one such NASA official who was a bit too public in expressing his misgivings about mission safety. And the billion-dollar price tag that American taxpayers have picked up since the last tragic loss of shuttle and crew raises the biggest issue of all. Ohio, Ala. to Play Bigger Roles for NASA. Space centers in Ohio and Alabama will get added work as NASA shifts direction from flying circles around the Earth in a shuttle to zooming to the moon again in a brand new space vehicle. NASA's DART spacecraft smashes into satellite. NASA's 800-pound Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft was supposed to circle a defunct orbiting Pentagon satellite. NASA orbiter arrives at Mars. A NASA spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Mars yesterday [3/10/2006], joining a trio of orbiters already circling the Red Planet. … The $720 million mission is managed by the JPL in Pasadena, Calif. [There were three probes orbiting Mars already? How many of these do we really need, at $720 million each?] Missions to the moon and Mars: The US House of Representatives yesterday [7/22/2005] overwhelmingly endorsed President Bush's plans to go to the moon and Mars. But the House also insisted that NASA concentrate on space research and on repairing the Hubble orbiting telescope. The Hubble, along with science programs and aeronautics research, are popular in Congress – partly because the contracts generate thousands of jobs, injecting millions into the economies of many lawmakers' districts. There could be no clearer example of pork barrel spending! Scientists find new clue to life on Mars. A vast, dust-covered ocean of ice is the most likely place to discover life on Mars, according to a team of British scientists. The frozen ocean was captured by cameras aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe, which revealed an expanse of pack ice just north of the Martian equator, in Elysium, a region strewn with dormant volcanoes. If the European Space Agency is sending probes to Mars, why are we duplicating the effort? Scientists object to Bush's moon-Mars missions. They say the president's two-year-old Vision for Space Exploration program is gobbling up billions of dollars that they think could be better used for less expensive projects, including new telescopes and unmanned robots such as the twin rovers on Mars. [This assumes that the billions of dollars must be spent somewhere.] NASA to unveil plan for moon mission in 2018. NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday [9/14/2005] on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018. NASA to unveil plans for 2018 moon mission. NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle is expected to cost $5.5 billion to develop, according to government and industry sources, and the Crew Launch Vehicle another $4.5 billion. The heavy-lift launcher, which would be capable of lofting 125 metric tons of payload, is expected to cost more than $5 billion but less than $10 billion to develop, according to these sources. NASA Wants Astronauts Back on Moon by 2018 ...at a cost of $104,000,000,000. NASA Planning Moon Launch for 2018. It will cost $104 billion over the next decade to send astronauts back to the moon, NASA's chief said Monday [9/19/2005], defending the price tag as an investment the nation can afford despite the expense of Hurricane Katrina. Described as "Apollo on steroids," the new moon exploration plan unveiled by the space agency will use beefed-up shuttle and Apollo parts and aims to put people on the moon by 2018. [Suppose NASA lands on the moon again in 2018. What will that accomplish? What is there to learn about moon rocks that hasn't already been learned?] Space: The Ultimate Prize. Recently asked [November 1999] what it would take to return to the moon, NASA responded by stating, “20 years.” Those old enough, recall in the 1960s that the task took only 10 years when there was no experience and no technology to achieve it. NASA has evolved into a bureaucracy. Has a New Era of Space Venture Arrived? The 1967 UN Treaty on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which the U.S. government signed, prohibits claims of national sovereignty on any extraterrestrial body. Moreover, the 1979 Moon Treaty disallows any private ownership on the moon. The commission reported that the United States "has not ratified the 1979 Moon Treaty, but at the same time, has not challenged its basic premises or assumptions." As a result, "the legal status of a hypothetical private company engaged in making products from space resources is uncertain." NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake. The space shuttle and International Space Station — nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades — were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday [9/27/2005]. … The shuttle has cost the lives of 14 astronauts since the first flight in 1982. Roger Pielke Jr., a space policy expert at the University of Colorado, estimates that NASA has spent about $150 billion on the program since its inception in 1971. NASA Eager to Fix the Problem, But Some Have Doubts. Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union … called it "ridiculous" that American taxpayers continue to "pour billions" into the shuttle program as well as the international space station — based on the "circular logic" that we need to send people into space to see how they act in space. House backs Bush on space quest. The House on Friday overwhelmingly endorsed President Bush's vision to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars as it passed a bill to set NASA policy for the next two years. No inspiration in space-based socialism. NASA will cost taxpayers $16.2 billion in fiscal 2005, up $822 million from 2004. That is an astronomical sum, considering not only the less-than-stellar returns NASA has yielded Americans recently, but also this year's projected deficit of $348 billion (to be piled atop a $7.4 trillion national debt). Our Future in Space. A truly bold vision of the future of space exploration for America would place private space entrepreneurs at the forefront. Like other industries (e.g. semiconductors, biotech, and the internet), the federal government played a significant early role in demonstrating key technologies. But these industries flourished when entrepreneurs stepped in and took the reins. We are now at that point with the exploration of space. Computer will tell Muslim astronaut how to pray in space. Malaysian scientists and religious scholars are trying to determine how Muslims should behave in space, as the predominantly Islamic country prepares to dispatch its first astronaut next year. [Perhaps Muslims shouldn't be in space at all. How would you know if you're really bowing toward Mecca in a zero-g environment, where the floor is the same as the ceiling? How would you know, at any given moment, that you weren't also bowing toward Jerusalem, or New York, or Hell itself?] Cutting Out HUD, NASA and Other Losers. The civilian space program is a 21st century version of Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) program, a boondoggle that provides employment on useless projects. It is nothing more than high-class welfare for scientists and engineers and the domestic aerospace industry. Editor's Note: The article above is just one of several excellent articles by Jim Grichar in which he lists dozens of federal agencies that should be trimmed or eliminated. Pork Hamstrings NASA'S Mission. Originally, the shuttle was expected to be a cheap way to transport people back and forth into space. At just $5 million per launch, it would supposedly open space up to all sorts of possibilities. However, the space shuttle program has not exactly lived up to our original expectations. To begin with, the cost per launch is actually 100 times higher than originally projected — at $500 million per trip. Nickels and dimes add up: NASA Employs a Performance Artist with a $20,000 Taxpayer-Funded Stipend. For two years, NASA paid Laurie Anderson as the agency's "artist in residence." The performing artist was commissioned to perform a theatrical story-telling piece in theaters across the nation, as part of a NASA outreach effort. The artist in residence position was not specifically authorized by Congress. … Her job Description: Create and tour a theatrical piece, educating theater-goers about NASA; and "…to produce a film on the moons of the solar system" for the 2005 World Expo. Why Do We Have A MANNED Space Program? As Poul Anderson put it in a 1984 lecture, Space: Promises and Problems, "The average man is not dumb; he's perfectly able to see that sending men to the moon is a rather roundabout and expensive way of producing a teflon frying pan, especially considering that teflon was already in existence." There are too many worthy research programs, such as on aircraft icing, that are notoriously underfunded, and too much of the manned space budget goes for repetitive "operations" that have little to do with technology development. Moon and Mars Missions are Not a Priority for Taxpayers. The President's initiative was left for dead in the summer of 2004 after a lukewarm reception from the public and deep skepticism from prominent scientists. But funding for the initiative was included at the last minute in the fiscal 2005 omnibus bill. For fiscal 2006, House appropriators have marked up NASA's budget at $16.5 billion including $3.1 billion for the moon/Mars initiative which is $275 million above fiscal 2005 levels and $15 million above the President's budget request. Scrap The Shuttle Program. The shuttle is far more expensive than expendable rockets used for the Apollo program the 1960s. The orbiter and solid rocket boosters are recovered for reuse, but an army of engineers must inspect and rebuild them for the next mission. As a result, plans for 100 shuttle missions a year have fallen to around four, costing $550 million each and employing 30,000 people. Don't Lavish Funds on NASA. After NASA sold the nation on the space shuttle as an inexpensive, reusable lifter, the cost of hefting a pound of payload into space, accepting NASA's accounting, soared from $3,800 in the 1960s Apollo program to $6,000 (in constant dollars). When Alex Rowland of Duke University included the development and capital costs of the shuttle, the cost rocketed to $35,000 per pound. NASA's costs went up when the cost of just about everything else — megabytes of computer memory, airline tickets, shipping a barrel of oil — were falling in real dollars. The difference between NASA's rising costs and the falling costs elsewhere is that computer makers, airlines, and oil shippers are in competitive markets. Time to Privatize NASA. The inflation-adjusted cost of commercial air travel has dropped by about 30 percent since the late 1970s, when airline deregulation began. And the cost of shipping oil has dropped by as much as 80 percent in a little over two decades. But the government's reusable shuttle has actually made spaceflight more expensive. Interesting web site: Space Projects dot com: "A bilingual, international directory of nearly everything space-related, including constructive reform proposals [by ex-NASA personnel] focused on making space access far more affordable." Somewhat related article: Scuttle the shuttle program. After Columbia clearly had disintegrated, NASA briefers characterized the occurrence as "a contingency." This mirrored the language of football coaches characterizing ruptured spleens and broken limbs as "bumps and bruises." Then followed suggestions to media that budget cuts inflicted by White House and Congress might have compromised shuttle safety. This crass, self-serving reaction was quickly replaced, however, by another football coach-like reaction: NASA would have to get the shuttles back into space again, as the dead astronauts would have wanted it. This just in: Probe finds a frozen orange world. The Huygens probe, part of a $3 billion joint mission involving NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, made its pioneering descent to Titan on Friday [1/14/2005], sending back readings on the moon's atmosphere, composition and landscape. … Scientists believe a study of the icy moon could yield clues about how life developed on Earth. Editor's Note: As I was saying at the top of this page, NASA's only remaining mission is the never-ending search for theories about the origin of the universe. Any theory will do, as long as it disagrees with the first chapter of the Bible. There is no end to this sort of theorization. Worrisome news in NASA survey. More than a year after the loss of space shuttle Columbia, NASA workers are still afraid to speak up about safety concerns, according to a survey released Monday [4/12/2004] that places much of the blame on the agency's leadership. Auditor quits with NASA finances in chaos. As NASA sets course for the moon and Mars, the space agency's finances are in disarray, with significant errors in its last financial statements and inadequate documentation for $565 billion posted to its accounts, its former auditor reported. NASA's Last Days? NASA is still mired in the old "throw money away" method of space travel. Testing such expensive equipment [as the X-43A] and throwing it away is wasteful, as if millions of dollars that went into it were nothing, and the jet itself, after the test, was of no more value than a model airplane. What Troubles NASA: A 248-page report issued by a 13 member board on the Columbia space shuttle accident makes 29 important recommendations to ensure the safe return of the shuttle for use in America's space program. However, there is nothing new in this report. Space Station May Have to Be Abandoned. If crew members have to leave the station they would do so aboard a Russian-made Soyuz vehicle that is left docked to the station as a lifeboat. China [is trying] to buy the moon. A company has set up operations in China to sell land on the moon for 289 yuan ($45) an acre, cashing in on renewed interest in space travel after the successful five-day voyage of Shenzhou VI. Privatize the Space Program. Phase out government involvement in space exploration, and the free market will work to produce whatever there is demand for. NASA's Unhappy Birthday: While space is indeed challenging, there's no excuse for many of the management mistakes that have given us near-sighted telescopes, misguided space probes, the fiery loss of billions of dollars of hardware with its crews, and most tragically, the squandering of billions of dollars, and irreplaceable years, on mismanaged and misbegotten programs that were ostensibly to reduce the cost of space flight, but instead ended up lining the pockets of contractors while delivering, at best, hangar queens. The space shuttle is a major polluter. The Shuttle is the largest of the solid fuel rockets, with twin 45 meter boosters. All solid fuel rockets release large amounts of hydrochloric acid in their exhaust, each Shuttle flight injecting about 75 tons of ozone destroying chlorine into the stratosphere. Those launched since 1992 inject even more ozone-destroying chlorine, about 187 tons, into the stratosphere (which contains the ozone layer). Scrap NASA. Throughout its existence, the most rewarding aspect of the space program has been sticking it to the Russians. With the ending of the Cold War, this motivation no longer applies. What then are we getting out of the program which will consume $86 billion dollars over the next five years? Tragically it seems these days that the only time the space program is grabbing top headlines is when disasters occur. [We just can't stop the manned space program at that point. When astronauts get killed in the line of duty, we must press on, because "that's what they would have wanted." This is an example of decision making based upon emotion rather than reason.] NASA Hopes to Spur Commercial Space Growth. The U.S. space agency is sponsoring a competition in which winning companies will get $500 million in seed money to develop space vehicles that NASA will never design, build or own. Like a U-Haul truck rental, NASA instead will merely lease them on a per-trip basis for sending cargo and eventually crew to the international space station. $500 million in "seed money"? Sounds like an enormous SBA loan. Maybe NASA's should be called the Large Business Administration. This still sounds like pork barrel politics and a busy-work project for rocket scientists, because there still is no end product in sight, other than support of the space station. Deep Impact probe hits comet. At a cost of $330 million, Deep Impact is the eighth mission in NASA's Discovery Program, which supports low-budget science missions. $333 million is the price of a low-budget mission! Deep Impact: NASA hopes the core of the Tempel 1 comet may hold cosmic clues to how the sun and planets formed. Permit me to reiterate: Every NASA mission — whether it's the Mars lander looking desperately for water, Deep Impact hitting a comet, or just flying around in circles for several days at a time — has as its goal something having to do with gathering clues about the origins of the solar system. After decades of these projects, what new clues are there? Does NASA have any tangible end product? Some estimate the cost of Deep Impact at $333 million. [1] [2] [3] [4] Others, perhaps rounding down, say $330 million. [5] [6] Update: NASA Announces Another Comet Mission. The University of Maryland-led team that produced the spectacular Deep Impact mission, which smashed an impactor into Comet Tempel 1 in July, 2005, hopes new information gathered from Comet Boethin will help coalesce the vast array of new cometary information into solid ideas about the nature of comets, how they formed and evolved and if they have played a role in the emergence of life on Earth. Comet dust capsule lands in desert. The mission, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cost $212 million. Comet Dust Capsule Lands In Utah. The mission, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cost $212 million. Stardust's return to Earth was the reverse of the ill-fated Genesis mission that carried solar wind particles. Stardust of yesterday. Scientists believe comets are icy, rocky debris left over from the beginning of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. … They expect that analysis of the Stardust samples will help them better understand how the planets formed and evolved. NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in Utah Desert. NASA's Stardust sample return mission returned safely to Earth [1/15/2006]. … Scientists believe these precious samples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar system. Capsule Brings First Comet Dust to Earth. After a seven-year journey, a NASA space capsule returned safely to Earth on Sunday [1/15/2006] with the first dust ever fetched from a comet, a cosmic bounty that scientists hope will yield clues to how the solar system formed. And now, on to the next frivolous project: Super Fast Spacecraft Zooms Toward Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft blasted off aboard an Atlas V rocket Thursday afternoon [1/19/2006] in a spectacular start to the $700 million mission. Despite the speed – it can reach 36,000 mph – it will take 9½ years to reach Pluto and the frozen, sunless reaches of the solar system. The Long Road to Pluto and Why We're Going. ... and the price tag for this boondoggle is $700 million. [1] [2] [3] Satellite could open door on extra dimension. An exotic theory, which attempts to unify the laws of physics by proposing the existence of an extra fourth spatial dimension, could be tested using a satellite to be launched in 2007. Such theories are notoriously difficult to test. But a new study suggests that such hidden dimensions could give rise to thousands of mini-black holes within our own solar system — and the theory could be tested within Pluto's orbit in just a few years. The official GLAST web pages at NASA, Stanford University, and General Dynamics can tell you everything there is to know about this project, except the cost. How many people care so much about black holes? Let them pay for this kind of research from their own pockets! Special subsection about the Genesis probe Capsule from Genesis Space Probe Crashes in Utah Desert. Scientists will soon begin trying to recover as much data as they can from the damaged Genesis canister in an attempt to salvage the $264 million mission. Crash of Genesis disappoints. Genesis held hundreds of fragile silicon wafers embedded with microscopic bits of the sun's surface. They were precious cargo, collected during the spacecraft's three-year, $264 million mission to unlock mysteries of the solar system's formation. NASA Board To Investigate Crash Of Spacecraft. One of the men who got an up close look at the Genesis space probe that crashed Wednesday in Utah said the outer shell and the canister with solar particles opened when it hit the desert. A drogue parachute and a parafoil that were supposed to allow helicopters to capture the delicate samples apparently did not fire, allowing the 500-pound craft to smash into the desert. Chute failure turns space probe descent into a crash landing. A NASA capsule carrying pieces of the sun hurtled out of control before smashing into Utah's west desert Wednesday, an almost-200-mph crash landing that could reverberate through the nation's troubled space agency. There goes another $264 million down the drain in an attempt to gather information to support a new theory about the origin of the universe. Is there no one at NASA or in the US Congress who can (or will) veto an idea like this before any money is spent on it? How many more missions of this sort are already underway? Update: Genesis slammed to Earth after parachutes failed. A report released Tuesday [6/13/2006] blamed a design flaw for the 2004 crash of a NASA space probe carrying solar wind atoms back to Earth and criticized engineers for failing to detect the error. The 231-page document prepared by independent investigators found that gravity switches on the Genesis probe designed to trigger the deployment of its parachutes were installed backward. [At first you might ask, "Doesn't somebody check things like that during construction? A better question would be, "How many people were fired as a result of this?" I would guess the answer would be a maximum of two people. The actual number will probably be closer to zero.] Again I say, it is time to pull the plug on NASA and privatize or terminate everything NASA does. It was the coolest science project of the 1960's, and it was a peaceful way to show the other superpowers that we had big rockets and fast computers, but the Cold War is over, and there is no reason — other than shameless pork barrel spending — to keep NASA around forever. Top Ten NASA Contractors for Fiscal Year 2005: $2,041,608,378 to United Space Alliance $1,516,216,915 to California Institute of Technology $1,337,979,568 to Lockheed Martin Corp. $1,300,155,000 to Boeing $ 428,771,225 to Science Applications International Corp. $ 384,582,105 to Alliant Techsystems, Inc. $ 322,390,911 to Space Gateway Support $ 315,459,867 to Honeywell, Inc. $ 297,369,749 to Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. $ 283,567,087 to Northrop Grumman Corporation Also of interest: A number of huge grants to companies that the average taxpayer has never heard of, as well as grants that are somewhat counterintuitive. $ 61,391,592 to West Virginia High Tech Consortium $ 12,144,530 to United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation $ 9,674,997 to American Museum of Natural History $ 9,200,297 to SETI Institute $ 4,097,810 to National Science Teachers Association $ 3,033,269 to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Total federal contracts awarded by NASA for Fiscal Year 2005: $14,548,190,252. [Source] Back to It's time to Scrap NASA Back to the Home page |
