Report: NASA lacks money to do its job

NASA lacks the money needed to carry out a robust science program while finishing the International Space Station and returning U.S. astronauts to the moon, a congressional advisory group reported Thursday.

"There is a mismatch between what NASA has been assigned to do and the resources with which it has been provided," said Lennard Fisk, chairman of a National Research Council space studies committee.

"We are particularly concerned that the shortfall in funding for science has fallen disproportionately on small missions and on funding for basic research and technology," said Fisk, a former NASA science chief who now is a space science professor at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

"These actions run the risk of disrupting the pipeline of human capital and technology that is essential for the future success of the space program."

The U.S. Congress in 2005 directed the NRC, an advisory arm of The National Academies, to review NASA plans for research in space science, which includes fields of study that range from astrophysics to earth science and planetary science.

The review followed President Bush's decision in January 2004 to complete the international station and retire NASA's shuttle fleet by 2010 and then send astronauts back to the moon between 2015 and 2020.

A subsequent decision to speed the development of new rockets and a spaceship to replace the shuttle fleet has prompted NASA to reduce previously planned funding increases in some of its space science programs while deferring work on others.

The Fisk committee looked at NASA's five-year plan and found that the program proposed for space and earth sciences "is neither robust nor sustainable, and it is not properly balanced to support a healthy mix of small, moderately sized and large missions," the NRC said in a news release.

The committee recommended that NASA restore funding for small missions and research programs as well as investments in technology for future missions. It also urged the agency to preserve ground-based and flight research aimed at developing capabilities for long tours of duty on the station as well as human expeditions to the moon and Mars.

The full report is here: NAS11644.pdf