NASA cutting outer planets budget

[ToSeek]

NASA To Use Outer Planets Data Analysis Funds for Other Purposes

In December 2004 you received a selection letter notifying you that your Outer Planets Research Program proposal had been selected for funding, and in late December I initiated the release of funds to cover the first year of your effort. I regret to inform you that the FY05 funds to support this program have been redirected by the order of the NASA Administrator to meet other agency needs.

This is all of five million dollars, probably to do analysis of data that billion-dollar probes were sent to collect.

[Swift]

[cyswxman]

Does this impact the New Horizons mission?

[ToSeek]

Does this impact the New Horizons mission?

No, it's just for analysis of existing data. Here's a summary of the program.

[TheGalaxyTrio]

"NASA cutting outer planets budget"

That's a shame. Neptune was counting on that new light rail system to stimulate its economy, and Pluto was hoping for the Las Vegas Express to begin service sometime in the 2015-2020 timeframe. :-k

Those poor Plutonians. Stuck for more decades with only local gambling, which consists mainly of second rate video poker palaces full of lousy 8/5 machines.

And then there's the Superfund money for the toxic waste cleanup near Uranus.

Yes, I went there. Deal with it.

[Tom Ames]

I think we'd better get used to news like this. It looks like the funding environment will not be particularly favorable for basic science research.

[Swift]

"NASA cutting outer planets budget"

That's a shame. Neptune was counting on that new light rail system to stimulate its economy, and Pluto was hoping for the Las Vegas Express to begin service sometime in the 2015-2020 timeframe. :-k

Those poor Plutonians. Stuck for more decades with only local gambling, which consists mainly of second rate video poker palaces full of lousy 8/5 machines.

And then there's the Superfund money for the toxic waste cleanup near Uranus.

Yes, I went there. Deal with it.

I guess that was a joke. :-?
What the OPR (Outer Planets Research) Program was really covering was

- Enhancing the scientific return from the Galileo, Voyager, Ulysses, NEAR, and Deep Space 1 missions by broadening scientific participation in the analysis of their respective data sets;
- Improving our understanding of the formation and evolution of the outer Solar System, including the giant planets, their satellites, and other small bodies;
- Defining the dynamical processes operating in the outer Solar System; and
- Providing further refinement of key Galileo mission datasets to improve their usefulness to the general scientific community.

That sounded good to me, and a bargin at $5 million. I think Tom Ames is right, given the US budget the bad news will probably keep rolling in.

[Manchurian Taikonaut]

"NASA cutting outer planets budget"

That's a shame. Neptune was counting on that new light rail system to stimulate its economy, and Pluto was hoping for the Las Vegas Express to begin service sometime in the 2015-2020 timeframe. :-k

Those poor Plutonians. Stuck for more decades with only local gambling, which consists mainly of second rate video poker palaces full of lousy 8/5 machines.

And then there's the Superfund money for the toxic waste cleanup near Uranus.

Yes, I went there. Deal with it.

I guess that was a joke. :-?
What the OPR (Outer Planets Research) Program was really covering was

- Enhancing the scientific return from the Galileo, Voyager, Ulysses, NEAR, and Deep Space 1 missions by broadening scientific participation in the analysis of their respective data sets;
- Improving our understanding of the formation and evolution of the outer Solar System, including the giant planets, their satellites, and other small bodies;
- Defining the dynamical processes operating in the outer Solar System; and
- Providing further refinement of key Galileo mission datasets to improve their usefulness to the general scientific community.

That sounded good to me, and a bargin at $5 million. I think Tom Ames is right, given the US budget the bad news will probably keep rolling in.

now we have the news on Voyager aswell
#-o
what kind of judgements are these, so much lost science ?

[Launch window]

now it's Mars

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=23145

[publiusr]

Once again--it is not that outerplanet missions are canceled--but that they are put off until better means of transport can be had. That will be slow to happen with all this hand-waving.

The planets aren't going anywhere.

And neither will NASA as long as we keep the Goldin era "If the spacecraft is bigger than a trash dumpster--it's toast" mentality of those who shoehorn more and more into the same limited shroud space.

Boeing's largest successful rocket is the ZENIT which uses Soviet era engines--as does the Atlas V. That's what happens when you neglect launch infrastructure in the name of one rinky-dink Mars orbiter after another....after another...after another.

[Padawan]

Does this impact the New Horizons mission?

No, it's just for analysis of existing data. Here's a summary of the program.

Phew! For a fraction of a second, I thought I was going into a shock!

[Launch window]

NASA's Predicament
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/31/op...90a51a&ei=5070

- President George W. Bush is preparing a budget request for next year that officials say would carve savings from programs such as Medicare, NASA and agriculture, testing lawmakers' pledges to hold down spending in an election year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...HkxwY&refer=us
Administration and congressional officials say Bush will propose more cuts in so-called entitlement programs as well as discretionary spending in fiscal year 2007, which begins Oct. 1, to hold down budget growth as the deficit swells with the cost of hurricane relief, the war in Iraq and subsidizing prescription drugs for senior citizens.

NASA budget worries lawmakers
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3523361.html

older news & old debate


Letter from the House of Representatives to President Bush Regarding NASA's FY 2007 Budget
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=18984
NASA Internal
Memo from Michael Griffin to William Gerstenmaier: In-Guide Option for FY 2007 Budget
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=18391

Bush's Space Plan in Danger
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...112301970.html
A large deficit in NASA's troubled shuttle program threatens to seriously delay and possibly cripple President Bush's space exploration initiative unless the number of planned flights is cut virtually in half or the White House agrees to add billions of dollars to the human spaceflight budget

[Dragon Star]

NASA has certainly seen better days...

[Spherical]

Situation normal...